Thoughts, Prayers, and Golf Rounds
Trump's Gun Violence Record is MURDEROUS
Trump’s Horrendous Gun Violence Record
When America mourns, Trump golfs. That’s not metaphor. After the Parkland massacre in 2018, where 17 high school students and staff were murdered, Trump spent the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and was photographed on the course during funerals. The disconnect was searing: parents burying children, while the president hit the links.
This is the through-line of Trump’s approach to gun violence: indifference, deflection, and opportunism.
Parkland: From Empathy Theater to NRA Lockstep
In the days after Parkland, Trump briefly signaled openness to stricter laws. He even scolded Republican lawmakers in a televised meeting: “You’re afraid of the NRA. Some of you are petrified of them.”
But within weeks—after a private meeting with NRA head Wayne LaPierre—Trump reversed himself. He dropped talk of stronger background checks and raising the purchase age for AR-15s. What remained was the familiar refrain: arm teachers, harden schools, and deflect responsibility.
Bump Stocks: The One Policy Shift
In 2019, Trump banned bump stocks—the rapid-fire attachments used in the 2017 Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas, where 60 people were killed at a music festival. He called them unnecessary for civilians.
But even here, he tried to have it both ways: claiming victory for banning them while reassuring the NRA he remained their champion. By 2023, conservative courts struck down the ban, and Trump refused to defend it.
The NRA Quid Pro Quo
Trump’s loyalty to the NRA wasn’t abstract. The group spent tens of millions backing his 2016 campaign. In return:
He pledged that under him, “the Second Amendment will never be in jeopardy.”
He stacked federal courts with judges friendly to gun-rights challenges.
He reversed Obama-era rules restricting mentally ill individuals from buying guns.
It was policy for payback, a straight pipeline of NRA cash to presidential protection.
Military-Style Weapons for Civilians
On AR-15s and similar rifles, Trump has consistently defended civilian access, dismissing mass shootings as mental-health or security problems rather than a weapons problem. After the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando (2016), where 49 mostly LGBTQ+ patrons were killed, Trump folded the tragedy into anti-immigrant rhetoric, falsely tying it to radical Islam rather than the shooter’s legal U.S. gun access.
By contrast, after Mandalay Bay, he briefly wavered—but only on bump stocks. The rifles themselves? Untouchable.
Who Commits the Violence?
The reality:
Mass shootings are overwhelmingly committed by native-born Americans, most often white men.
Immigrants—legal or undocumented—are statistically far less likely to commit violent crime than native-born citizens.
Yet Trump highlights any single crime by an immigrant, weaponizing it as proof of a border crisis.
It’s not about data. It’s about narrative. A white man with an AR-15 is an aberration; an immigrant with a knife is a national emergency.
Open Carry and Expanding Guns in Public
Trump has encouraged open carry, supported concealed carry reciprocity laws, and flirted with the idea of a national standard overriding state restrictions. The agenda: more guns in more public spaces, justified as deterrence, despite research showing the opposite—more guns equal more deaths.
The Pattern: Deflect, Delay, Defend the Donors
After Parkland: perform empathy, then cave to the NRA.
After Pulse: redirect outrage to immigrants.
After Mandalay Bay: sacrifice bump stocks, but save the rifles.
Every day since: blame mental health, schools, and cities—never the weapons, never the money.
Trump’s pattern is clear: he bends briefly under public grief, then reverts to defending donors and stoking fear. His gun policies aren’t built to save lives; they’re built to save his political alliances.
The Cost of This Hypocrisy
Every day, Americans die from mass shootings, domestic disputes turned deadly, children finding unlocked weapons. Every day, the NRA bankrolls politicians to block reform. And every day, Trump finds another scapegoat—immigrants, cities, Democrats—while golfing past the graves.