Just days after deadly mass shootings that occurred in Kentucky and Tennessee, Former President Donald Trump spoke at a NRA convention in Indianapolis to deny the existence of a "gun problem" in America.
On Friday afternoon, Trump took to the podium grinning and clapping along to a Biblical sounding version of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." Addressing the crowd at the conclusion of his intro song, Trump got in only a few words before pausing to bask in cheers of "U.S.A! U.S.A!" that drowned out his voice.
"I'm thrilled to be back with the hardworking, God-fearing, card-carrying patriots of the NRA," Trump said to further cheers.
Going on to address whether or not guns are, in fact, a problem in America, Trump leaned towards "no," saying "Our country has been chocked full of guns for centuries and there was no talk of massacres of school children until around the year 2000." Elsewhere in his speech, he proposed forming a panel to investigate whether or not being trans and/or smoking dope could be the cause of all of these shootings.
Going into further detail on what this panel will look into, Trump specified that it will work to determine if "transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence."
Trump proposes a panel to investigate whether being trans and using cannabis cause mass shootings pic.twitter.com/i5bX8XYSm2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2023
"Lot of problems, we're having problems we're never seen before," he continued.
According to Snopes, the claim that there were no mass shootings during Trump's presidency have been proven incorrect.
"The claim that there were no mass shootings under Trump is simply false," writes Dan Evon. "In fact, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history took place during the Trump era. In October 2017, a gunman shot and killed nearly 60 people at a music festival in Las Vegas."
While not an exhaustive list of every mass shooting that took place during the Trump administration, here are some of the deadliest incidents while Trump was in office:
- In November 2017, 26 people were killed at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
- In February 2018, 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
- In May 2018, 10 people were killed at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas.
- In October 2018, 11 people were killed at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- In November 2018, 12 people were killed at a restaurant in Thousand Oaks, California.
- In May 2019, 12 people were shot and killed at an office building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
- In August 2019, 22 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
"Let's be very clear. The issue is not too many guns. The issue is too many hoodlums and savage criminals . . . that's really what the issue is," said the former President.
Following Trump's speech, HRC National Campaign Director Geoff Wetrosky issued a statement on his remarks saying:
"Anti-equality extremist politicians, led by Trump, continue to go out of their way to attack transgender Americans rather than address the real issues impacting all of us -- notably the scourge of gun violence, the leading killer of children and teens in America. This weekend, in the wake of a number of mass shootings in places like Louisville and Nashville, Trump pandered to the gun lobby and again focused his ire on an already marginalized population in a desperate attempt to rile up his base. But we know that attacking LGBTQ+ people doesn't win elections, as we saw in the 2022 midterms, and it won't work in 2024. As long as Trump, DeSantis, and other anti-equality politicians continue these discriminatory attacks, they will have no viable pathway to victory."
