After promptly congratulating himself for “being right on radical Islamic terrorism,” bursting landfill of municipal solid waste Donald Trump called in to the Today show to discuss what he would do to prevent further mass shootings like the one that left 50 dead early Sunday morning at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.
Trump emphasized the need for improved intelligence gathering (“For whatever reason, they’re not reporting these people and they know there’s plenty going on up there that’s wrong,” he said, not clarifying who “they” is).
Savannah Guthrie asked: would he consider a ban on assault rifles, as Hillary Clinton just called for, since they are a “weapon of war,” not used for hunting or self-defense?
Trump said:
“Well first of all there are millions of ‘em already out there, millions upon millions, so they’re already out there, number one. And I absolutely wouldn’t, because people need protection. They have to protect. So the bad guys will have the assault rifles and the people trying to protect themselves will be standing there with a B.B. gun.”
“Can you think of an instance where someone on the good side used an assault weapon?” Guthrie followed up.
“She’s the wrong person at the wrong time,” he said, ignoring Guthrie’s question and turning his focus to Clinton. “She’s weak. She’s ineffective. She does not understand the issue and she would be absolutely the wrong person.”
“She wants to bring 500 percent more people in from Syria, 500 percent more coming into this country, pouring into this country, and I’m saying we cannot take any more people from Syria right now, we can’t do it, we can’t even think about it.”
Doesn’t it seem that Trump is speaking about actual human beings the way he should be speaking about, I don’t know, assault rifles?
To use Trump’s reasoning regarding his ban on Syrian immigrants, we could remind him that there are millions of angry people—of all nationalities—already out there, millions upon millions, so they’re already out there, number one. And anyway—not that it matters, as Trump’s blanket hatred of brown people does not discriminate—but Omar Mateen, the man behind the Orlando attack, was born in the U.S. His parents are not Syrian.
“The Second Amendment is under a threat like never before,” said Trump when the National Rifle Association endorsed him in May. “We’re getting rid of gun-free zones, I can tell you.”
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