On February 14, 2018, 14 students , two coaches, and one teacher lost their lives in Parkland, Florida after their school was ravaged by a 19 year old with an assault rifle. This event sparked a national cry for stricter gun laws, and subsequent scrutinization of Donald Trump’s pro-gun mindset was catalyzed. Throughout his time as a political figure, Trump has expressed a deep interest and passion surrounding guns.
“We need a Supreme Court that in my opinion is going to uphold the Second Amendment, and all amendments, but the Second Amendment, which is under absolute siege.” — Donald Trump, Third 2016 Presidential Debate in Las Vegas, Oct 19, 2016
“I am a Second Amendment person.” — Donald Trump, Fox Business 2016 Republican 2-tier debate, Jan 14, 2016
“I have a concealed-carry permit that allows me to carry a concealed weapon. I took the time and the effort to get that permit because the constitutional right to defend yourself doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That doesn’t apply just to me either. It applies to all our driveways or front doors. That’s why I’m very much in favor of making all concealed-carry permits valid in every state. Every state has its own driving test that residents have to pass before becoming licensed to drive. Those tests are different in many states, but once a state licenses you to drive, every other state recognizes that license as valid. 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. That seems logical to me.” — Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p.110 , Nov 3, 2015
“The way I look at it, you take Chicago, you take Baltimore, you take various other places where you have tremendous gun violence and death, right? The strictest laws in the United States–in the world–for guns happens to be Chicago where they have a lot of problems. Baltimore, a lot of the places where you have the biggest problem is where they have the strongest laws. So I don’t think it’s about laws. It is really a mental health problem.” — Donald Trump, Meet the Press 2015 interview moderated by Chuck Todd , Oct 4, 2015
Donald Trump emphasized his support of the right to obtain and to bear a gun in his 2016 campaign platform. As quoted by CNN during the general election, he boasted “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Support of gun rights was a crucial pillar of Trump’s campaign, as the majority of his supporters are large proponents of maximizing firearm accessibility.
Trump’s support for the NRA’s stance during the recent Florida shooting is not surprising. In fact, the NRA spent $11 million in ads and direct campaign contributions to Trump’s campaign. The organization also donated $20 million to defeating Hillary Clinton. Overall in 2016, the NRA donated $55 million in independent expenditures towards political races, supporting Republican candidates 99 percent of the time.
Unequivocally, the NRA has Trump’s loyalty. In 2018, Trump stated on Fox News “I’m a fan of the NRA. There’s no bigger fan. I’m a big fan of the NRA. These are great people, these great patriots. They love our country.”
The NRA has consistently made huge donations to political campaigns and used its influence in the business world to meddle in politics. For many years they have been able to prevent gun control legislation by ensuring that politicians depend on the organization’s support.
The same model of assault rifle that killed 17 students in Parkland was also used in numerous mass murders throughout the past decade, including in the Sandy Hook massacre. In the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20 first graders and six adults were killed. At the time, many Americans called for stricter gun laws, but legislation never got off the ground. This lack of legislative progress in Washington likely connects back to the NRA’s endorsement of politicians who block the laws that most Americans favored. On February 28, just days after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, NPR surveyed a number of Republicans and Democrats and reported that 75 percent of the respondents said that they wanted stricter gun laws. This is an increase from the 68 percent who said they thought that gun laws needed to be stricter when surveyed in 2017 after the Las Vegas shooting. But despite the public’s desire for more restrictive laws around firearm accessibility, little progress has been made in the way of legislation
Trump claimed to be different — a president that would listen to the desires of the people. He told CNN that he was “the people’s billionaire,” meaning that he was above the money that corrupted politicians and swayed legislation. He claimed that he would not only be able to “Make America Great Again,” but also defend the nation with a strength unmatched by any president preceding him. That said, by forming an alliance with the NRA, Trump is effectively supporting the values of the organization.
Trump has shown no resistance or effort to change gun control legislation. In fact, Trump has failed to show much compassion for the victims of Parkland at all. On February 17, 2018, @realDonaldTrump tweeted, “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!” This tweet came three days after the Valentine’s Day shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School.
Following Donald Trump’s delayed response, the online community, especially survivors and parents of the Parkland shooting, was outraged. One of the survivors, Aly Sheehy, responded on Twitter, “17 of my classmates are gone. That’s 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But you’re right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain.” Another survivor responded: “17 innocent people were brutally murdered at my school, a place where they should have felt safe. Their lives were gone in an instant. You are the President of the United States and you have the audacity to put this on Russia as an excuse. I guess I should expect that from you.”
Trump continued to demonstrate a lack of empathy for the victims of the Parkland shooting at a White House meeting on February 21. The intent of the meeting was to provide a forum to discuss gun violence with several students from Stoneman Douglas High School. During the meeting it was clear that the President was only interacting with the victims through pre-scripted phrases written on notecards. Some of his prepared responses inluded sentiments such as “What would you want me to know about your experience?” and “I hear you.” In the wake of the meeting, Trump was called out for using a notecard by the press and on social media platforms, and many cited the formulated language as an example of the President’s inability to empathize.
President Trump has a long and deeply rooted history of supporting gun rights, and his ingenuine reactions to the shooting at Stoneman Douglas provide little hope for students across the country that the President’s stance will change anytime soon.
