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Reactions To Trump's Second Amendment Statement Are Just As Crazy As His Ideas
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump might have gone too far this time. At a rally on Tuesday, Trump implied that voters should take action to stop Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton through the Second Amendment — and the reactions to Trump's Second Amendment statement were unsurprisingly and equally shocking. And while Trump's whole schtick is about speaking his mind, without a filter, it seems that he may have overstepped this time.
"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment," Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. "By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks."
Then, Trump seemed to issue a threat. "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know," he said. "But I’ll tell you what, that will be a horrible day.”
So, we all know that Second Amendment people are gun owners. In that sense, no matter how you spin the "joke," which is likely how Trump will explain it away, he's suggesting someone take out Clinton to "stop her." He is inciting violence and this hasn't been the first time he's done it, either. At his rallies this spring he has threatened to "beat the sh-t" of a heckler, said people needed to start "hitting back," and offered to defend a supporter in court if he hit a protestor. These are just a few examples.
And Donald Trump's rallies were a little violent. He was sued in Kentucky in April for inciting violence. So when he throws an idea around that someone should shoot Hillary Clinton, I'm not very sure why everyone is so surprised. Or just outraged.
You know who wasn't surprised? Hillary Clinton. Her campaign issued a statement after his remarks circled social media.
"This is simple," her team wrote. The Clinton campaign echoed Republican Sen. Susan Collins from Maine, who (smartly) denounced Trump today. In her refusal to vote for him, she said the same thing Clinton's team is saying. She wrote in The Washington Post on Tuesday:
I had hoped that we would see a ‘new’ Donald Trump as a general-election candidate — one who would focus on jobs and the economy, tone down his rhetoric, develop more thoughtful policies and, yes, apologize for ill-tempered rants. But the unpleasant reality that I have had to accept is that there will be no ‘new’ Donald Trump, just the same candidate who will slash and burn and trample anything and anyone he perceives as being in his way or an easy scapegoat. Regrettably, his essential character appears to be fixed, and he seems incapable of change or growth.
Clinton's team also tweeted the same sentiment right after his speech.
Of course, there are supporters who are on social media claiming that his words are being construed. But that's total, in the immortal words of vice president Joe Biden, "malarky."
No matter what you think about who Clinton might try to appoint to the Supreme Court (and by the way, gun owners, no one is coming for your guns). Donald Trump just sorta, kinda, yea, pretty much just put a hit on Clinton, because this country is full of lunatics with guns. The non-lunatics with guns and everyone else need to realize that pretending that Trump isn't dangerous or out of his mind isn't acceptable anymore.