Donald Trump ‘Sometimes’ Has A Gun: ‘I Like To Have Myself Protected’
Donald Trump’s position on gun control has fluctuated somewhat over time, but in a recent interview, the Republican presidential hopeful says he “sometimes” has a gun. In fact, Trump reveals he possesses an elusive New York City concealed carry permit, and that he feels safer when armed.
In a recent interview with Face the Nation, Trump opened up to host John Dickerson on his personal experience with guns.
According to CBS News, Trump claimed that he obtained a concealed carry permit “years ago,” and that he “sometimes” carries a gun because he likes “to have myself protected.”
The full excerpt of the Face the Nation interview can be viewed below.
Dickerson tried to ask if Trump recommends that other people go out and get concealed carry permits, but Trump interrupted to point out that he was a “big second amendment person,” and to plug his upcoming book, “Crippled America,” in which he stated his feelings on the second amendment.
Trump went on to say that if more people carried guns “sometimes” and knew how to use them, that tragedies like the Umpqua Community College shooting might turn out differently. He specifically mentioned that if the teacher had been armed, and was trained in safe gun use, that the shooter could have been taken out before killing so many students.
“I am the most military-based and the most militaristic person on your show,” Trump told Face the Nation. “I want to have a much stronger military. I want it to be so strong that nobody’s going to mess with us.”
The Donald has been pro-gun, to a certain degree, for a long time, but his positions have changed somewhat over time.
According to the Washington Post, the Republican presidential hopeful’s book released in 2000, “The America We Deserve,” indicated that he opposed gun control in a general sense, but that he was for assault weapon bans and instituting long waiting periods to buy guns.
Today, Trump is still pro gun, but he has flipped the script on a few of those ideas.
According to ABC News, Trump released a policy paper in September that called existing bans on assault weapons and extended magazines a “total failure.”
The policy paper indicated that Trump no longer supports a ban on assault rifles or extended waiting periods to buy guns.
On the subject of his concealed carry permit, the New York Daily News reports that Trump told a crowd at a Tennessee rally that he sometimes carries a concealed weapon last week.
“I have a license to carry in New York can you believe that? Nobody knows that. Somebody attacks me, they’re going to be shocked.”
Trump may have meant that it would be shocking to see a billionaire carrying around a gun instead of paying a security officer to do it for him, but it’s also surprising due to how difficult it is to obtain a concealed carry permit in New York.
That need has to go above and beyond living or working in a high-crime area, according to the LA Times.
That puts concealed carry permits out of reach for many, but not for the Donald Trump, who carries “sometimes” because he feels the need to be protected.
What do you think about the Donald Trump “sometimes” carrying a gun?
[Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images; pio3/Shutterstock]
