Not Everyone is Happy With the NRA's Endorsement of Trump

Anybody but Hillary.

That seems to be the new mantra for those whose political leanings are more right-of-center. It’s also the prevailing thought with organizations like the National Rifle Association, but that doesn’t mean it sits well with members.

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A day after the NRA officially endorsed Donald Trump, there are rumblings of dissent among those who wonder why the organization moved so quickly to endorse Trump, when they waited several months after the nomination to endorse either Romney in 2012 or McCain in 2008.

From POLITICO:

“’I have no clue why they did it,’ said Brian Abney of Missouri. He was among the much smaller contingent that showed up to the NRA’s Annual Members Meeting on Saturday, hoping to grill the NRA’s brass about the decision to endorse a man who not long ago backed longer waiting periods to buy guns and a ban on assault weapons (which, NRA activists will tell you, is an inaccurate, anti-gun term for that category of firearms).

Trump has since disavowed those views, and on Friday, he called for an end to gun-free zones while warning that Clinton would overturn the Second Amendment.

On the NRA Facebook page, there has been a mix of some who approve and others who flatly refuse to support an organization that would so readily support someone like Trump.

“’It was a very clear choice,’ said an NRA official on Saturday, who insisted on speaking anonymously about internal NRA deliberations. ‘Hillary Clinton is not an option. She must be defeated at all costs.’”

The campaign was “heated,” the official said, so the NRA saw the early endorsement as “an opportunity to begin the process of bringing everyone together to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect a pro-Second Amendment president.”

Trump’s more recent statements put him on strong footing, the official said. ‘Throughout this campaign, Donald Trump has been very clear that he is a staunch supporter of Second Amendment rights.’”

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Yeah. He says that now, but can he be trusted?

Nobody knows for sure.

Representative Allan West gave a very watered-down nod to the decision to back Trump.

“’What’s the alternative?’ West said Saturday in a brief interview. As a freshly elected member of NRA’s board, he wasn’t involved with the endorsement decision.

‘You’ve got to endorse someone that you think will look after your interests,’ West said. ‘I guess they figured that Donald Trump will protect the Second Amendment.’

Asked whether he trusts Trump to protect the Second Amendment, West responded, ‘We’ll have to see.’”

I’m sure we will see, but with Trump, expect the unexpected.

 

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