After former President Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, a bullet grazing his ear on Saturday from an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon, Republican party supporters at the Republican National Convention said the attempt is not a Second Amendment reform issue.
Among delegates at Trump’s Republican Party nominating convention in Milwaukee, none that Reuters spoke to advocated for limits or bans on assault rifles, raising the legal age to buy a gun or even more robust background checks.
The delegates were dead set against any type of reform to America’s gun laws.
“This wasn’t a gun problem. And what happened to President Trump – it was a human problem. It was a it was a madman trying to take another person’s life. You got to be crazy,” said Bo Biteman from Wyoming.
Several delegates said any gun-related reforms should focus on funding better mental health support for troubled citizens, a standard Republican position. They blamed gun crime and gun massacres – including the assassination attempt on Trump – largely on mental illness and weapons falling into the wrong hands.
U.S. law enforcement officials are still trying to determine why Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old nursing home aide, shot at Trump at his election rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Crooks was shot dead in the attack, which the FBI said was being investigated as potential domestic terrorism.
“I don’t think it’s about guns because guns don’t kill people. Crazy people kill people. Mentally ill people kill. I don’t think this is a time to be making it about a gun debate,” said California Trump donor Stacey Feinberg.
Only a few miles from the RNC convention in Mequon, Wisconsin, customers enjoyed a day at a boutique shooting range owned by Cheryle Rebholz, who also agreed Crooks was an example of irresponsible gun ownership.
“The shooter wasn’t [responsible]. And, like I said, it’s just an object sitting there. The weapon is his head. That has to be the root cause,” she said.
After a home robbery attempt left her shaken, Rebholtz said she turned to a firearm for protection. Rebholtz said gun ownership is often misunderstood because several positive factors go overlooked.
“The people that judge gun owners or people that are in leagues or do it recreationally should come in before you judge the Second Amendment. Come in, get experience and be educated before you put a blanket statement on what we do. We keep converting people and changing minds,” she told Reuters.
Rebholtz said gun ownership among women has increased over the last several years in her community. Similar to Rebholtz, a car break-in incident shifted Julie Kiel’s perspective on guns. As part of a women’s shooting league, she says the gun not only has made her feel safe but has also changed her life.
“There has been a lot of growth as far as self-confidence. There has been growth being in social settings because you’re constantly meeting people. I think I’m just happier. It fills a hole,” she said.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the first major gun safety bill in decades, which blocked gun sales to those convicted of domestic violence and gave new funding to state ‘red flag’ programs to remove guns from people deemed dangerous.
In February, speaking to the National Rifle Association, Trump pledged to undo all gun-related restrictions enacted by Biden, whom he faces in the Nov. 5 election.
Source: Reuters