Trump: Fewer people would’ve died if the Orlando clubgoers had guns
ATLANTA — Donald Trump suggested that the death toll in Sunday’s deadly shooting in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub might have been lower if more clubgoers had been carrying guns.
“If the bullets were going in the other direction, aimed at the guy who was just in open target practice, you would have had a situation folks, which would have been horrible, but nothing like the carnage that we as all people suffered this weekend,” Trump said during a raucous Wednesday rally in downtown Atlanta that was frequently interrupted by protests.
He made similar remarks after last year’s terror attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., and Paris.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s comment on Wednesday came just hours after he tweeted that he planned to meet with the National Rifle Association to talk about the issue of whether people on terrorist watch lists or the federal no-fly list should be able to buy guns.
Echoing remarks he has made on the campaign trail since Sunday’s shooting, which killed 49 people and injured more than 50, Trump sounded a dire note Wednesday about the country’s ability to prevent similar attacks in the future. He trashed President Obama and likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for their “weak” leadership, insisting that they had not kept the country safe.
“It’s not a pretty picture, what’s happening, folks,” Trump said, speaking of the “unthinkable” tragedy in Orlando. “How could this possibly be happening in the United States of America? … I hate to say it, but it’s going to happen again and again and again. We are not doing what we are supposed to be doing.”
He also warned about the eventual demise of the U.S. unless the country changes course.
“It’s amazing that our country can continue to survive. But, you know, eventually, it’s not going to survive, just so you understand. Eventually, it’s not,” he said. “It’s amazing that our country can be abused so badly … — it’s just amazing! — and continue to survive. But it’s not going to continue to survive like this. It can’t. It’s impossible. It’s impossible,” he added.
Trump also repeated his claim that Clinton is a hypocrite for saying that she is a supporter of the LGBT community. He said that contrasted with her support for immigration from countries hostile to women and gays. Trump also talked up his own inclusiveness of the LGBT community, saying that his Mar-a-Lago club admitted gays before other beach clubs in Palm Beach, Fla., did.
“I will tell you the LGBT community, the gay community, the lesbian community, they are so much in favor over what I’ve been saying over the last few days,” he said.
In response, a woman stood up and loudly cursed the GOP candidate, setting off a series of protests that repeatedly interrupted Trump’s remarks, which lasted about an hour.
Trump was preceded onstage by 2012 Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, a prominent black Republican who assailed Mitt Romney and other members of the Republican Party for questioning the real estate mogul’s values. Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, warned earlier this month that Trump could inspire “trickle-down racism.”
“Donald Trump is not a racist,” Cain declared to wild applause from the crowd. “I grew up in Atlanta, Ga. I know what a racist looks like when I see one, and Donald Trump is not a racist.”
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