Their presidential candidate narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, a bullet hitting his ear on Saturday from an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon, a rifle often used by mass shooters in the United States.
Yet in interviews with 12 Donald Trump delegates at the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, none advocated limits or bans on assault rifles, raising the legal age to buy a gun or even stricter background checks.
The delegates were completely against any kind of reform in the United States’ gun laws.
Most viewed even mild measures, such as expanded background checks or raising the legal age to purchase an assault weapon to 21, as violations of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to own guns.
Instead, delegates said any gun-related reforms should focus on funding better mental health support for troubled citizens, a standard Republican position.
They blamed gun crimes and mass shootings — including the attempted assassination of Trump — largely on mental illness and guns falling into the wrong hands.
U.S. law enforcement officials are still trying to determine why Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old nursing home aide, shot Trump at his election rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Crooks was shot dead in the attack, which the FBI said was being investigated as potential domestic terrorism.
More effective mental health services are essential to identifying potential shooters and getting them help before they commit a gun crime, deputies interviewed said.
“It’s all about mental health,” said Will Boone, a Montana police deputy. “The right to own a gun is enshrined in the Constitution. When you start infringing on that, other rights start to be taken away.”
Georgia Rep. Steve Kramer said it was a “lie” that expanding background checks would help.
“If you look at most murders, someone stole the gun, so background checks wouldn’t make a difference,” Kramer said.
Between 1966 and 2019, aside from school shooters who stole their guns primarily from family members, most people who committed mass shootings bought their guns legally, according to data compiled by the National Institute of Justice, a research agency of the Justice Department.
The gun used by Trump’s alleged killer belonged to his father, according to investigators.
The Republican Party has generally blocked attempts to reform gun laws, even after the 2012 massacre of 20 elementary school children in Connecticut by a gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and two handguns.
Efforts to pass universal background checks and an assault weapons ban were defeated by Republicans in the US Senate following the school massacre.
During his 2017-2021 term, Trump repeatedly tried to loosen gun laws, said Kris Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence.
Shortly after taking office, he signed a bill into law that reversed an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.
The Trump administration has banned “bump stocks,” an attachment that essentially converts a semi-automatic weapon into a machine gun. A bump stock was used in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, in Las Vegas in 2017, when a gunman killed 60 people and injured more than 400.
In June, the conservative-leaning US Supreme Court lifted the ban on bump stocks.
In February, speaking to the National Rifle Association, Trump vowed to repeal all gun restrictions enacted by Democratic President Joe Biden, whom he will face in the Nov. 5 election.
Matthew Rust, a Wisconsin police deputy, said he believes an armed citizenry is a deterrent to shooters. “When a perpetrator knows there may be law-abiding citizens who can defend themselves, they are less likely to take action,” Rust said.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
