Scott Powers
For the first time in Central Florida Donald Trump brought up Orlando’s Pulse nightclub massacre in more than a passing way — and his advice was that people should be prepared to shoot back in such situations.
It’s not a new suggestion from the Republican nominee. He brought it up shortly after the Paris and San Bernardino massacres last December. And on Thursday, speaking before about 9,000 people at the Silver Spurs Arena, Trump again applied the advice specifically to San Bernardino and Paris, rather than Orlando.
But it was his way of addressing Pulse, the popular Orlando gay nightclub where 49 people were massacred and 53 others wounded in a June 12 mass shooting. Trump actually only mentioned that massacre in passing, to praise the police response, which drew thunderous applause. Then he turned to detailing San Bernardino and Paris.
“You know if, in San Bernardino, if these two people became probably radicalized, he did, by her, she came from outside, probably radicalized him, and they went in and they shot and killed 14 people, many people wounded, still in the hospital, badly wounded, gravely wounded,” he said.
“If we had bullets going in the other direction: number one, they probably wouldn’t have come in, where they knew there were guns were the bullets could travel in the opposite direction, but if, assuming, they’re not thinking even a little bit, they’re nut jobs, the carnage would be very small by comparison. very small,” Trump argued.
“Now Paris, 130 people killed. They have the toughest gun laws anywhere in the world. The toughest gun laws in the world, right Paris,” he continued. “But they walked in. Boom! Boom! Get over here! Boom! Boom! They killed 130 people. Just massive numbers of people still in the hospital, will never be the same, can never be the same. Paralyzed. Everything you can imagine. Now, if somebody on the other side had something to do. They had nothing.
“You know, if you have gun-free zones, you know what that means? To these nuts? They’re like ‘Ohhhh!'”
In his 49-minute speech, Trump also spent plenty of time blasting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, charging again that Obama founded ISIS by getting out of Iraq too quickly, created an economic recovery so slow it’s no recovery, doubled the national debt, reduced home ownership to the lowest level in decades, weakened America, botched trade negotiations, and neglected America’s infrastructure. Clinton got blamed too, but Trump said she just does whatever Obama wants.
“Because Obama has so much power over her, she’ll do anything, anything he wants,” Trump said. “You know why he’s got the power, right?”
If the crowd didn’t know, he didn’t tell them.
“Oh, boy,” he continued. “She’ll do anything.”
