Is there anyone who has ever endorsed Donald Trump who wasn’t embarrassed by the decision less than two weeks later? The most recent honoree in the Trump endorsement embarrassment sweepstakes is the NRA, who woke up to this tweet this morning from Donald Trump:
I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2016
There are so many problems with this, I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll begin with the first reply:
@realDonaldTrump Meeting with Congress might work, too? Er, you’re right. The NRA writes those laws.
— Scott T. Smith (@UniPresser_UPI) June 15, 2016
Good Lord. Caving after 24 hours to a nonsense public pressure and announcing that you’re basically going down to the organization to tell them how they ought to feel about something is just about the most embarrassing thing Trump could have possibly done to the NRA. And count on them to swallow it with hardly a peep, because what else can they possibly do at this point?
Memo to Trump: the conceptual problem with what you are proposing is that the executive branch makes sole determination of who is on those lists, with no due process, adjudication, or even opportunity for those who are put on the list to know about it or appeal the decision. Gun owners do not want President Obama or President Clinton – or President Trump – to have the unilateral right to decide they can’t purchase a gun through the simple expedient of putting them on this list.
Of course, as a not-very-closeted authoritarian, I am sure the idea that he would get to be the final word of who gets to own guns in America and who does not appeals to Trump’s instincts. It should not, however, appeal to any actual supporters of the Second Amendment.
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