Trump: The NRA is a truly great organziation that loves this country
DALLAS - President Donald Trump on Friday addressed the National Rifle Association's annual meeting, signaling his strong support for the gun rights group after suggesting months earlier that he was open to some firearm restrictions in the wake of a school shooting in South Florida.
"Your second amendment rights are under siege but they will never ever be under siege as long as I'm your president," Trump told NRA members, whom he referred to as patriots.
Trump has already addressed the group three times and has counted it as a powerful ally from the earliest days of his presidential campaign. The NRA spent more money on behalf of Trump than did any outside group in 2016, deploying its resources for him earlier than in any other presidential cycle.
But Friday's speech was his first appearance before NRA members since the mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school on Feb. 14, which created a new wave of momentum for the gun-control movement nationwide led by the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School themselves.
The massacre also moved Trump to flirt with stricter gun measures in defiance of NRA priorities, such as raising the legal age to purchase AR-15s and similar types of rifles to 21 and expanding background checks to guns sold at shows and online. In a meeting with lawmakers, Trump even mocked Republican lawmakers over the power of the gun lobby, telling one GOP senator he was "afraid of the NRA."
But Trump quickly backtracked, instead embracing modest gun-related measures such as legislation to improve information sharing for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. That bill, known as the Fix NICS Act, was signed into law as part of a government spending measure in March.
His Justice Department has also proposed barring "bump stocks" - devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire like fully automatic weapons - through regulations, although Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill would prefer that be done legislatively.
"It's a great organization that loves this country. The NRA is a truly great organization that loves this country," Trump told reporters on Air Force One, noting the large crowd that had already lined up at the convention center here. "We'll see you up there. We'll do another one."
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