PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Trump on the 2nd Amendment :: 01/07/2016
Milford, NH -(Ammoland.com)- Many of our members and friends have asked us to report on Presidential Candidate Donald Trump.
We had to work very hard to find credible information on Mr. Trump’s positions on important Second Amendment issues.
The first place I looked was in Mr. Trump’s book: “Crippled America How to Make America Great Again” ( tiny.cc/adox7x ) wherein he devotes an entire chapter to the right to keep and bear arms. He makes some strong points about blaming the criminal and not the gun and he correctly acknowledges that we enjoy the right to bear arms to protect our families. However, Mr. Trump also talks about what he calls our “Broken Mental Health System”. This is troubling because he writes that:
“All of the tragic mass murders that occurred in the past several years have something in common – there were red flags that were ignored. We can’t allow that to continue. We need to expand treatment programs, because most people with mental health problems aren’t violent, they just need help. But for those who are violent, a danger to themselves or others, we need to get them off the street before they can terrorize our communities. This is just common sense.”
We don’t know what he really means by this. How would Mr. Trump determine who is a danger to themselves or others? Would he sign legislation like we defeated in New Hampshire 2 years ago that essentially said, see a shrink, lose your guns. Mr. Trump has not been specific. Would he support due process? Or would merely seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist cause someone to lose their Second Amendment rights even if the patient had not done anything wrong? We know that shrinks have a poor track record at predicting future behavior.
Ammoland reports that, “overwhelming evidence points to the signal largest common factor in all of these incidents is the fact that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes.”
So maybe we need to curb the use of psychotropic drugs? Maybe it is time for the United States as a nation to reconsider the deference that courts give to psychiatrists and psychologists.
We here at NHFC are just as concerned about curbing mass murder as everyone else. However, we are also concerned with protecting the civil liberties of those who have not done anything wrong. We would like to see specifics from Mr. Trump about who he would consider disarming and under what criteria.
He also said that he owns firearms, has a concealed carry permit and supports making those permits valid nationwide. Just like a drivers license. Mr. Trump clearly wrote that:
“That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.”
In the past he has supported gun and magazine bans but since he became a candidate he has been pretty clear where he stands. He even pointed out after the terrorist attacks in Paris that law abiding, disarmed Parisians were unable to defend themselves. Recently, The Hill reported that Mr. Trump said:
“The Second Amendment, it’s so great to me,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Biloxi, Miss. “We’re not changing the Second Amendment.” Trump said to loud cheers that there is an “assault” on the Second Amendment as Obama considers executive action on gun control. “I will veto that. I will unsign that so fast,” Trump said.
We certainly share Mr. Trump’s sentiments. But remarks like this make us here at NHFC wonder why, with all of his billions and all of his political influence he has not been involved in Second Amendment civil rights issues in his home state of New York and home town of New York City? These jurisdictions have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. Yet Mr. Trump has not pushed for change. We also wonder, why, someone who professes to be so strongly in favor of the Second Amendment continues to reside and pay taxes in such a place? After all, with Mr. Trump’s billions he is free to call anyplace home.
Mr. Trump also wrote that:
“… government simply has no business and, in fact, no right to dictate to gunowners what types of firearms law-abiding Americans are allowed to own. Gun owners should be allowed to purchase the best type of weapon for their needs, whether it’s for self protection, sport shooting, or any other purpose.”
The fact that he is willing to put his views in writing in a book and on his website does give us some optimism that he is a friend and not a foe. However, he has never held elective office and has, in the past made anti-gun comments. Politico reports that Mr. Trump has financially supported politicians who are hostile to our civil right to be armed, like Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid. Now that he is a Presidential Candidate he seems to have become an opponent of Hillary.
With Trump, you could be gambling away your Second Amendment civil right to be armed.
About New Hampshire Firearms Coalition:
The New Hampshire Firearms Coalition is New Hampshire’s only No Compromise Gun Rights Organization. While many so-called “gun rights groups” work to curry favor with politicians and the media, NHFC is working aggressively to hold politicians accountable and to put a stop to gun control.
For more information, visit: www.nhfc-ontarget.org.
http://www.ammoland.com/2016/01/trump-on-the-2nd-amendment/#axzz3wijsN3eB
