Donald Trump is a gun lover. While campaigning, he proudly says he has a concealed carry permit and is a member of the National Rifle Association.
"The Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear," his website declares. "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon. Period."
The National Rifle Association announced that it would endorse Trump Friday afternoon, moments before the presumptive nominee repeated his pro-gun message to thousands of members at the group’s national meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. But Trump’s position on guns has been, to borrow a phrase from the candidate himself, flexible over time.
In his 2000 book “The America We Deserve,” the real estate businessman criticized Republicans who “walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions.”
He wrote that though he was against most gun control, he supported the then-active assault weapons ban and longer waiting periods for buying a gun. The ban expired after ten years in 2004 and has not been renewed since, despite an effort to revive it after assault weapons were used in the 2012 Newtown shooting that left 20 schoolchildren dead.
Trump’s gun positions on his campaign website today say he is against any type of ban, despite his written comments 16 years ago.
“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice,” his website says. “The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own.”
Trump today also says on his website that most gun purchasers are “law-abiding” and the background check “broken system” should be fixed, not expanded. His platform today also supports expanding concealed carry permits for guns to all 50 states and allowing military members to carry firearms on bases.
Before Trump effectively netted the nomination, his opponents tried to exploit the candidate’s backtracking on bans and waiting periods. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas suggested that Trump’s about-face on guns, abortion and other conservative issues made him inconsistent and unreliable as a nominee.
But the voters heard Trump’s message instead. “This is about self-defense, plain and simple,” his website says.