Trump’s “Second Amendment people” comment proves he doesn’t understand gun owners

I’m a gun guy. I have been for a long time. I am a collector and I have been a provincial level pistol competitor for almost 30 years. Last month I competed in the US National Pistol Championships in Camp Perry.

I have a lot of friends who are gun owners and many who aren’t. One of the annoying things that non-gun owners do around gun owners is to crack jokes about ‘taking somebody out’ or ‘shooting the place up’, etc. The important thing to note is that in making jokes like this they are not being mean. They are trying to be friendly and this is how they genuinely think gun owners talk amongst themselves. They believe this because their main source of information about gun culture comes from Hollywood and the media. When their joke is received with rolling eyes and blank stares, they are perplexed.

In contrast, gun owners never speak to each other this way. Why? Well one reason is that we have the tools and the skills to carry out the implied threat that would be joked about. We are afraid somebody will take us seriously. With great means comes great responsibility. Or as Robert Heinlein put it, “an armed society is a polite society.”

For instance, I would never, ever make an assassination joke because I sometimes travel across the border with handguns to attend shooting competitions (with all the correct ATF paperwork filled out, of course). The last thing I want is for US Customs to pull me over at the border because I have been flagged by the Secret Service as a possible threat. Non-gun owners make the kind of jokes they do because they do not understand this reality.

In making his “Second Amendment people” joke about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump comes across to me like one of those non-gun owners. Clearly, the part of his speech where he delivered that line was an attempt to curry favour with American gun owners. In his ham-fisted attempt at humour, he ticked us off because we know we are not like that. He was playing to a caricature created by liberal disinformation to discredit us – one that we are continuously trying to distance ourselves from.

Andrew Klavan’s theory about Donald Trump is that he is living up to the liberal media’s caricature of a conservative because the liberal caricature of conservatives is all that he knows. He is opportunist who saw an opening in the GOP and he must put on the best act he can.

Trump’s assassination comments, while also distasteful and inappropriate, is a data point that Klavan is onto something.

Comments

[Autoguy]

I read the original Trump comment as more along the lines of 'constitutionalist 2nd amendment' types being able to challenge any changes in court. That may be my bias. Of course, anyone looking at a Trump quote these days is going to have a starting bias, and that is a huge part of the problem.

[Cincinnatus]

Another huge problem is that Trump has been all over the map on this issue - as with most other issues,

[Fred from BC]

"Trump's assassination comments", you say?

Please elaborate...

[Autoguy]

Trump said in an interview that Hillary was going to do everything she could to get people's guns. She would appoint the 'correct' judges to SCOTUS in that regard. Trump said "maybe the 2nd amendment people can do something about that". I think I have it exactly right... The media responded with a firestorm, saying Trump made an assassination threat. I didn't take it that way at all, but many did.

[Cincinnatus]

Dear Autoguy and Fred:

A word of advice: you are not doing your boy any favours by making excuses for his reckless dialogue.

This election is shaping up to be a duel between two competing narratives: 'Hillary is a crook' and "Trump is a psycho'. The main theme of each capping will be to push the opposing narrative on their opponent. They are both doing this because the majority of people in both parties believe BOTH narratives. The side that wins will be the side that succeeds in making his narrative about his opponent the most vivid in the mind of the average voter in Nov.

Every time Donald Trump gets carried away with his rhetoric - joking about gun owners taking out Hillary, or offering to pay his supporters' legal bills if they beat up a heckler, or speaking causally about the use of nuclear weapons, etc. - Donald is doing Hillary's work for her. ALl she has to do is sit back with her finger on the record button.

If I were interested in getting Trump elected - I am not, but if I were - every time Trump made one of his outrageous comments, I would be loudly criticizing him (with the hope of modifying his behaviour) rather than making excuses that most non-Turmp people do not find compelling.

[DPT]

Trump is truly inelegant in his rhetoric, but I didn't take that statement as calling for 'assassination' but rather as a reflection of why we have a Second Amendment in the first place. It is one of our many inalienable rights which nonetheless had to be stated; it is not there to put food on the table or to shoot at paper targets, but rather to inoculate the populace against our government should it become repressive -- as King George's was at that time. They wrote knowing human nature and the uses and abuses of power, that the "rulers" should instead fear rather than be feared by the populace. American gun owners can understand simple English declarative sentences such as the 2nd is, and will never obey any law or court ruling which disarms them; obviously by force if all else fails.

[Autoguy]

You make a solid point. Trump is getting this advice; of this I am certain.
OTOH...
Trump is NOT a psycho. The narrative is simply false. He isn't saying anything that many of us have thought. His speech is often unguarded. But you can take to the bank that everything will be spun in the worst possible way. By accepting that spin we help Hillary and hurt Trump. I'm NOT GOING TO AID AND ABET THE ENEMY.
Yes, Hillary is the enemy. While Trump's faults are magnified out of all recognition and outright falsified, all of Hillary's faults are minimized, whitewashed and ignored.
IF Trump was a psycho, he would absolutely be more dangerous than Hillary. The Borgias essentially bought the Papacy back in the day and they didn't ruin the position. So a true psycho is worse than a simple crook.
But Trump doesn't show psychotic behavior AT ALL. He shows unconcern for the mores of the elite. I generally applaud that, even while I regret his occasional 'over the top' takes. Maybe this is because he understands that whatever he says will be spun into oblivion.
On the other hand...
Clinton is a serial liar. Clinton's policies mean more debt and an ever-greater stream of culturally incompatible 'refugees'. Clinton's policies mean even more racial strife, as the racial hucksters get more influence and fan the flames. A list of Clinton faults... (conspiracy theory warning)...

She allowed a US ambassador to die to protect Obama's re-election bid. She lied about it, to us and to the families of the dead. She refused to use official US govt email so she could scrub those emails and keep them from scrutiny. When these emails were subpoena'd, she dumped a bunch of them against the law. She sent classified info over a private server. She sold influence to the highest bidder through the Clinton Foundation. A case can even be made that she has had several people KILLED to cover up indiscretions. Lastly, she has enabled her husbands' sexual attacks for DECADES.

I haven't even scratched the surface with this.
Whatever Trump has SAID, those supposed indiscretions simply aren't even in the same league as Clinton's ACTIONS.

[Eric Doll]

And you, Cin, are doing Hillary's work for her. The 2nd amendment exists precisely for the reason that Trump alluded to. If he can't draw people's attention to the fact that provision for an armed citizenry was considered important enough to write it into the constitution, what does that leave him, or anyone, as allowable comment? Like all the other sharp intakes of breath over Trump's accurate but cryptic comments, this is hogwash that cuts to Hillary's advantage.

[Cincinnatus]

Dear Autoguy:

The theme "Trump is a psycho" is being used by the Clinton campaign because it is working. It is working because it is being believed.

During the primaries, one of Trump's selling points was that he was media-savvy enough to be able to do an end run around the media. Recent events have shown that his skills in this regard are less than what were promised.

[Autoguy]

Dear Cincinnatus:

You're absolutely right. I would love for Trump to tone things down a bit. His chances for winning improve considerably then. His ego may not let him do that.