https://youtu.be/EsGmLdhhX6I

In a speech yesterday, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton declared that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would “mandate” guns in school classrooms from day one in office. In fact, Mr. Trump stated that he would eliminate “gun free zones” in schools in his first day in office, not “mandate” their deployment. (We’ve previously pointed out that is impossible; eliminating Bush the Elder’s Gun Free School Zones Act would require an act of Congress.) Instead of clarifying his remarks, Trump then rescinded them in a Tweet. And then spent a good part of today qualifying his denial. Like this [via huffingtonpost.com]  . . .

“I don’t want to have guns in classrooms. Although, in some cases, teachers should have guns in classrooms,” Trump said during the phone interview [with Fox News]. “Things that are going on in our schools are unbelievable. You look at some of our schools, unbelievable what’s going on. But I’m not advocating guns in classrooms.”

His next words: “But remember, in some cases and a lot of people have made this case, teachers should be able to have guns. Trained teachers should be able to have guns in classrooms.”

That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

Teachers can be armed now. School districts and, in some cases, individual schools can opt out of the GFSZA. Teachers have been armed in Utah for years, example. Texas, too. What’s more, states, cities. towns, schools and school districts can “allow” individuals, all permit holders or anyone to carry inside a school zone.

While Hillary Clinton’s purposefully twisting of her opponent’s words reveals to the depths to which she’ll sink, Donald Trump’s waffling on “guns in schools” reveals that he has no idea how the government works. Doesn’t have anyone advising him who does. Ad doesn’t care. Quite apart from the fact that Mr. Trump doesn’t seem to “hold” any position about, well, anything.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media is — rightly — nailing Mr. Trump on the “gun free zones” in hotels that he owns (e.g. Mar-Lago and Trump National in Jupiter, Florida). A line of attack that Ms. Clinton unleashed in her speech, which Mr. Trump has yet to address. (Won’t that be fun?)

Anyway, do voters know how the federal GFSZA works, or care? By the same token, do they care about Mr. Trump’s policy contortions (to be charitable)? The answer, I feel, is a profoundly depressing “no.” And yes, I know: #anybodybuthillary.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

77 COMMENTS

  1. Its always the devil you know vs the one you don’t.
    In this case Ill go for the one I don’t and take my chances.

    • There is very little Trump can do without the approval of a GOP Congress.

      Hillary will have a democrat Congress that gives her everything she wants and more. It will be a nationwide Calpocalypse. Her SCOTUS will not stop any anti-gun legislation.

        • How’s that Medical Insurance working out for you?

          You know, the ACA that was passed in the dead of night on Christmas Eve using parliamentary trickery by a Democrat Congress with Obama in office?

          I’d rather go with the “Rich Old White Heterosexual Christian Republican Male” … seven strikes against him with the MSM than the put into office a gun-grabbing lying two faced bribery taking lawyer turned career politician.

          And with him having announced his potential Supreme Court nominees…all decent choices, vs what we know would be Social Justice Warriors instead of Justices under a Democrat president.

          Seems to me the choice is pretty clear: A successful businessman vs a failed politician.

          Or, if your prefer…a successful capitalist vs a failed socialist.

        • >> ACA that was passed in the dead of night on Christmas Eve using parliamentary trickery by a Democrat Congress with Obama in office?

          I didn’t realize that winning majorities in both the Senate and the House in an election, and then using those majorities to enact legislation, counts as “parliamentary trickery” these days.

        • @int19h

          Actually the Democrats had to forego the usual process of bill reconciliation between the House and Senate because of Sen Brown’s surprise win in MA due to a sudden vacancy by the death of Sen Kennedy. As a result, the House took up another bill much closer to the Senate version, passed in the dead of night 24 Dec, in order to head off a potential debate filibuster without the Senate’s super majority rule to get in the way.

          So while not illegal or “against the rules” it showed the Democrats were fearful of an impending resistance to their coveted bill and decided to use different legislative means to push it through. It could be viewed as a form of parliamentary trickery or as the modern left likes to say “loophole” in the process.

          But hey, rushing another bill through the House to conform to a rushed bill passed on Christmas eve must be a good idea to the modern left, no problems can come from that, right?

      • You’re missing the point, schools don’t need Congressional approval to arm Teachers in the Classroom. It can be done at the local level. Even here in California, we have a School District that has approved a plan to allow a few educators to carry concealed on Campus. Local Law enforcement is behind them as they understand that it is in the interest of Public Safety. However, at the same time Liberal Democrats have managed to put 10 anti-gun measures before the Senate, which do nothing to promote public safety, but have the potential to turn law-abing citizens into criminals. This is an all-out effort to strip Americans of their 2nd Amendment Rights and promote a liberal Democratic agenda. When will people wake up and realize we don’t need their permission to exercise our freedoms, but sadly we must fight to keep them.

        • Schools cannot arm teachers as they please. Guns are banned 1000feet of schools, except cops. Teachers are not cops.

      • In California, a CCW holder may carry on a school campus with the written permission of the school district Superintendant.

    • Thanks for rolling the dice with my and the country’s future. Vote Trump and it’ll come up craps.

      • In California, a CCW holder may be allowed to carry on a campus with written permission from the Superintendant of the School District.

    • So he’s got a lot to learn. That is a good thing people.

      That his mouth works without engaging brain, a probem.

      You dance with the one that brung ya, isn’t that the saying?

      • Ignorance is bliss for the ignorant person only. Especially if the ignorant person in question is President of the United States.

        I trust that President Trump would surround himself with qualified people. I fear he won’t listen to them when he should.

        • “I trust that President Trump would surround himself with qualified people.”

          The Left said the same thing about Obama.

          We saw how that worked out…

          (I’m still voting Trump)

        • History shows that most presidential advisors are either just “yes men,” or they’re protectors of their own little fiefdoms. In other words, they rarely offer sage advice to the POTUS. True stand-up advisors are swept out of their positions because the DC press corpse wants to focus on every little policy variance inside an administration, and advisors who bring in the unvarnished truth become a hot-button issue for presidents, and especially Republican presidents.

          One can look back to Reagan’s foreign policy for examples on this, or to Bush’s foreign policy people, (or actually, most any foreign policy advisors since WWII to presidents of either party) to see examples of really poor advisors and yes-men.

          On the flip side, (ie, an honest advisor who gave good advice and got broomed out) Bush Jr. started with good economic advisors, esp. Paul O’Neill, but Bush’s foreign policy people, coupled with the frauds from the Federal Reserve, ended up pushing O’Neill out. History has proven O’Neill correct on a large number of issues.

        • Yes, this is exactly the problem with the “surround himself with good people” idea. The person taking the advice from the “good people” has to be capable of distinguishing good advice from bad. Trump’s “I’ll wing it” persona doesn’t give me confidence that he’s able to do that.

        • “History shows that most presidential advisors are either just “yes men,” or they’re protectors of their own little fiefdoms.”

          Yep, and we see it clearly with the current administration, *everything* is run through Valerie Jarret. His biggest problem (that he incapable of realizing) is that he’s likely the most cut-off from outside voices of any recent President.

          And Carlos wrote:

          “Trump’s “I’ll wing it” persona doesn’t give me confidence that he’s able to do that.”

          True. We don’t know.

          But we *DO* know exactly how the levers of power will be pushed if Clinton is doing the pushing.

          Oh, joy, 5+ more months of this debate…

          *mutter*

        • What I meant wasn’t ignorant but more someone who isn’t raised and indoctrinated in nothing but the ways of government. Going back to the idea that anyone who actually wants the job of governing should be disqualified on that alone – well we aren’t going to get that, but at least if we can keep the professional government drones out of the race that at least is a next best thing.

          This by the way is why I like term limits. Philosophically I don’t like them but we don’t live in a philosophical world, at least term limits would put this idea in place systematically, at least to a degree.

        • “Obama was also groomed to be a statist. Trump? Not so much.”
          Are you high? He has lived, worked, and endorsed the corrupt, criminal, and gungrabbing tyranny of NYC his entire life, absent the last two years where he’s been weakly pro gun with his spoken words (not that think tank’s Policy Paper he never read) and as mildly anti gun as ever with his actions (and quite antigun with his donations)

          NYC corrupts people, we told you all this last summer. Now we’ll have a charismatic prez who gives congressional repubs political cover to cave on antigun legislation after a school shooting or terrorist attack.

        • No, Obama truly was groomed to be a statist. He’s been raised in the Chicago political machine, which is more corrupt than anything NYC has put together since WWII. Further, Obama pal’ed around with Frank Marshall Davis, Bill Ayers and others who are way out there on the totalitarian left. Trump has done nothing like that.

          There is no equivalence here, moral or otherwise. Obama doesn’t like America, and it shows in every foreign policy he makes.

        • >> I trust that President Trump would surround himself with qualified people

          Why would he? Qualified people are exactly the kind of people that would tell him when he’s spouting BS or contradicting well-established facts and data. Since that is 90% of the time when Trump is speaking, they’d be telling that to him a lot. And based on everything we’ve seen so far, he does not look like the kind of person who likes being told that he’s wrong one bit.

    • By 2A stance, you mean the latest empty sales pitch contradicted by his prior idiot windbag pronouncements on the topic, none of which demonstrates any understanding of the issue and none of which has ever been backed up by real life actions? Real 2A hero you have there.

      Trumpkins are just enamored by the wealth and obscene celebrity of this guy. They’re as clueless and reckless as their candidate.

  3. Hillary Clinton may have finally said something that is absolutely true: politicians’ opinions on guns are dangerous: to our liberty … which is why gun laws are supposed to be off-limits for politicians.

  6. Anyway, do voters know how the federal GFSZA works (NO), or care ( ONLY IF THERE HAS BEEN A MASS SHOOTING IN THE LAST 48 HOURS)?

  7. His 2A stance is excellent. Hillary is a bought and paid for liar. SCOTUS and this country will be lost if Hildabeast is elected.

  11. Farago has a serious jag on for Trump. Lest you forget that Bush no. 2 agreed with extending the 1994 AWB? That he and the NRA butted heads over this for a period of time?

    Trumps position on gun rights is the best the Republicans have offered in recent general elections. Give up the ghost, Robert. Embrace the Trump.

    • As a journalist, well, blogger, I question everything. As a Second Amendment “absolutist” I’m absolutely worried about Trump selling gun rights down the river. If he ever knows what “gun rights” are. And yes I know: #anybodybuthillary

      • RF I have the exact same worry about Trump.

        And I know it’s been said to death, but if it’s Trump or HRC whatcha gonna do?

        We need to support this guy, and keep his feet to the fire.

        I have no problem taking him at his word – at this time, and giving him full support.

        There are a lot of definite positives to the guy, he has never raised your taxes, he has never lied to you in campaign speeches, he has succeeded in business, he looks like he is in this fighting to win (hello Romney?). He is really getting the proggys all a-twitter, which pleases me to no end. This alone makes me smile enough to say Vote Trump Hard! I just think sometimes you gotta go with what you got.

        That’s not the same thing as saying we trust him or think he is the perfect president, which I don’t and he isn’t.

        I do think we are headed for an interesting summer, I only hope the violence doesn’t get out of hand, and I do expect lots of it coming from the organized progressives. OWS was bad enough, this is going to have them apoplectic. But the more these people want to shut Trump up, the more I think he deserves support.

        That’s what I think anyway.

  12. There needs to be a Trump drinking game

    Every time he says “unbelievable”, “huge”, “tremendous,” “sudden”, “beautiful”, “Win/Winning”, “Stupid”, “Weak”, “Loser”, “Moron” You drink.

    Drink enough and what he says will not matter anymore or perhaps even make sense.

  13. Most frustrating of all…these candidates both suck, neither gives a hoot about actually protecting 2A, and while everyone sits and bickers a perfectly viable Libertarian candidate sits waiting for support and votes….quit reaching into the toilet to pick up a turd to polish off and wash your hands of it.

    • Gary Johnson picked a big time gun grabber for his running mate. I would hardly call that “viable”.

    • “perfectly viable Libertarian candidate”

      By viable of course you mean, certain to lose. Sure.

    • “Perfectly viable” Libertarians don’t choose guys like William Weld as their VP. It would be quite a task to find someone less libertarian than the gun-banning, Obama-endorsing Weld. His record would be embarrassing to a true Republican, much less a Libertarian.

  14. One of the things that I’m coming to realize about Trump’s “walk-backs” and seeming “waffles” on positions is that he does these shifts so quickly, he’s completely inside Hillary’s campaign staff OODA loop. They can’t get a fix on him to roll out a set of talking points to the press through Journolist (or whatever the most recent version is called).

    Trump presents a moving target. He’s become the Muhammad Ali of politicians. I’ll explain, but sadly this won’t be concise. I beg your indulgence.

    The DNC, Hillary, and indeed the press, have a set-piece campaign set up and waiting for Republicans every four years: They know that they can go after the GOP POTUS candidate, no matter who they are, on guns, abortion, health care, income “inequality,” “minority rights,” sexual freakdom (up the level of freak every four years) and the environment, and they have their research staffs and ad production companies ready to roll out hit pieces on these topics at a rapid pace, every single election cycle since 1992. This is the whole “war room” type of thinking was pioneered in the Clinton 1992 campaign. The GOP has never, ever figured out how to deal with the DNC’s rapid adoption of technology and round-the-clock media managers since then. Bush Jr’s campaign didn’t deal with the national media – Rove’s strategy was to target individual states and go to the local media and simply not deal with the national media as much and Bush didn’t win by much at all.

    Conventional Republicans have consistently failed to appreciate how fast the national media spin cycle has become. The DNC knows how fast the media is, because there’s so much incest between the DNC and the news media. The DNC and the press are literally in bed together.

    Ah, but Trump – this guy is the master of his own Twitter account. He knows how to use social media at the same time he’s tying the national media in knots. He’s spinning cycles inside of Hillary’s very expensive staff – never mind consistently exceeding the mental capacity of the old lady in a Mao parody jacket with a TBI. He’s getting tons of free airtime – worth probably over a $billion by now – that he’s gotten simply by saying six outlandish things before most of us have had lunch on any given day. He’s changes his quotes, talking in non-specifics, waving a hand over here while giving the media a red-meat quote over there, tossing “Squirrel!” comments off left and right so fast that the media cannot decide which outrageous quote to dissect for their insipid talking-head shows and op-ed pieces.

    But what’s more is that he never apologizes for anything, and that’s been the media’s biggest weapon against the GOP for decades – make the GOP candidates apologize for saying something. Trump doesn’t care. He’s a “shitlord,” as the yapping feminists call men who act like men and don’t apologize nowadays (I learned this recently having earned the title myself). Trump is perfectly proud to be one. This drives the SJW left into a tizzy, the press into confused disarray, and Hillary is perpetually four days behind the guy.

    What lots of doctrinaire Republicans fail to admit is that Trump’s tactics are de-fanging the media – he’s both co-opted and neutralized the media nearly completely. Trump defeated the GOP field’s attempts to derail him, and they’ve outspent him literally 100+ to 1. The media love him for the ratings he’s bringing, and Trump is able to extort them with their own ratings. That a Republican (even a johnny-come-lately Republican) is able to do this to the media is both exasperating and alarming to the media, who are lock-step 90%+ liberal Democrats.

    Gun owners, being more politically informed than 85+% of the voting public (it is true, there’s polling showing that every four years, and it has been true since the 80’s when I got involved in RKBA issues – gun owners are often more informed on law, the Constitution, public policy, who is who in DC, etc than the vast majority of voters out there), keep watching every twist and turn, wanting to call Trump out on every little variance in his stated position. Professional politicians (and more to the point, their consultants) actually hate gun owners. I’ve talked to GOP campaign consultants who have bluntly and unequivocally told me they hate gun owners because, in their words “…goddamn gun owners never forget, and they never forgive.” No other group of politically active citizens can call up the numbers of voters/letter-writers on a short notice that gun owners can, and no other cohort of voters can remember an obscure vote 20+ years on, and still give a politician a ration of crap for that vote. Politicians hate how gun owners tie up their phones, abuse their staffs, flood their mailbox, cause the US postal service to swear as they’re hauling in bag upon bag of mail. We’re a tough room to play to, in other words.

    The variances in statements out of Trump are indeed variances, and ordinarily I’d be right there with you guys who call out every little change in position. This time, I think many of us are missing a much bigger picture: Trump is winning against the media. The RKBA movement has never done any better than to win in spite of the media, but gun owners have never actually defeated the media. TTAG puts up at least a dozen postings a week showing the media’s never-ending mendacity and venal lies against gun owners, every week.

    But Trump? Trump is defeating the media – and the irony is that the media is helping him do it. I’m going to cut him some slack just now, and try to figure out how we can co-opt Trump’s tactics and methods.

    • It’s real simple. We either have hillary in the office or Trump. Methinks Trump will be less damaging than the hag.

    • Playing “rope a dope” may be working it is just some times hard to tell who is the dope.

      • Well, the first targets were the rest of the GOP primary field, then the “conservative” press (Fox News, National Review, et al). Now the targets are the national media, Hillary Clinton and her proxies. That’s the same progression that most all candidates make – they have to win against the others in their party, then they pivot to the general election. The issues change before and after the pivot, typically.

    • DG, all of that is great IF he is still on our side when the show is over. I certainly hope so.

      • That’s very true.

        What I know a priori is that The Dowager Empress is not on our side. Not even a little bit.

        Any man with functional testicles knows that he has to vote against her, and for many more reasons than just gun rights.

        • What I don’t like is statism. In any of its forms. I don’t like the welfare state. I don’t like the police state. I don’t like authoritarian government figures. What I see in hillary is unabashed statism. What I see in the Donald is thinly veiled statism. So far, he’s our man on guns, (a defense against statism.) Donald offers a brand of statism that is more agreeable to me, but it is still statism. Hillary offers a brand of statism that makes me sick. I will vote for donald. I hope he wins. I hope he gets rid of the affordable care act. I hope he never builds a wall. I hope he enacts pro gun legislation. I hope that he doesn’t tighten up libel laws. I’m 29 years old. I’ve never been offered a good candidate to vote for president and this year is no different.

    • Damn, That was a pretty good riff.

      I do believe the key is “apologize for nothing”.

        • Not so. Stalin was quite good at delegating the killing organization of the USSR. There was no real opposition to Stalin – he had the country sewn up tight and anyone plotting against Stalin would be killed rather quickly.

          Mussolini wasn’t a good delegator, and didn’t get much wholesale slaughter done aside from his foreign policy adventures into Africa. The killing in Italy started in earnest after the Germans decided that Mussolini was incompetent, and they rolled into Italy to prop him up. There were several plots against Mussolini, and these kept him off-balance going into WWII. If the Germans hadn’t rolled into Italy, I think Mussolini would have been killed or deposed by the Italians themselves.

          • Stalin nearly fucked up WW2 by insisting on micro-managing his generals early on. It took over a year for him to learn that he has to delegate.

            (Hitler, OTOH, never learned that lesson.)

        • Stalin didn’t so much F up by micromanaging his generals, as much as the fact he purged the military of effective leadership in order to undercut any potential rival.

          That little non-aggression pact with Hitler and the inability to see Hitler had reneged on it proved to be a disastrous as well.

  17. This is why you shouldn’t vote for Trump:
    1) He’s wishy washy.
    2) He has no decency (Max Lucado proved).
    3) He has no character.
    4) He lied about his finances: he’s horribly in debt (Fortune magazine and Forbes proved)

    Libertarians want to let you do whatever you want. Vote for them.

  18. Thank you for pointing out that in Utah teachers can be armed. A cc holder can also carry in a school as long as it is concealed. I know of maybe two instances where anything bad has come from this and if I recall they were both NDs in the bathroom. I’ll also point out that I can’t recall any mass shootings in Utah schools. A decent way to promote this behavior would be a tax credit for any teacher or faculty member that gets their concealed carry permit. I want teachers to carry around my kids and I want to be able to carry if I go to their school too. This is the home of the brave not the home of the pajama boy. We should be allowed to protect our kids and dispatch any thugs that want to harm them.

  19. There is one school district near me that has publicly announced that it is allowing teachers to conceal carry, with a license. As far as the school district my children attended/attend (for a couple of more weeks), they aren’t on record as to whether any teacher conceal carries, or not. As for the other 1,000 + districts in Texas, I haven’t followed their policies. Personally, I do prefer the element of surprise, instead of being public about it..But, they didn’t ask me.

  20. No President should decide what goes on in a local school’s classroom – whether we agree or disagree with the proposal.

    • The GOP has run on “getting rid of the Department of Education” every four years since Reagan.

      Yet they never seem to find their gonads when it comes time to actually, you know, pass legislation doing so.

  21. We are voting for the person that is going to nominate who is going on the USSC that will determine our second amendment rights for the next forty years.

    It shouldn’t be that way, Jefferson warned what would happen with the judicial tyranny of a few fallible human beings with absolute power of what they say is constitutional.

    But we have to deal with the reality, unlike our opposites in the Delusional Party.

    So stay focused and remember, it is who is going to decide who is nominated for the the USSC we are voting for.

    • And Trump has actually published a list of judges he would nominate for the USSC that look really good.

      I will be harder to “flip Flop” on that list, that list is on record, versus anything said on air to the press.

      • >> I will be harder to “flip Flop” on that list, that list is on record

        Hahahaha.

        “It was just a suggestion” is all it’ll take.

    • >> But we have to deal with the reality, unlike our opposites in the Delusional Party.

      The irony is that what you’re posting is almost word-for-word identical to what gets posted on left-wing groups and forums as a pitch for Hillary.

  22. He’s just another Monkey on the Doghouse. But the NRA has declared: He’s our Monkey on the Doghouse.

  23. “…he has no idea how the government works.”

    That’s okay, neither do the people who have been voting for him.

  24. Ol’ Donaldo doesn’t need to know anything about a Constitutional Republic or about Individual Liberty, or about the several States and their sovereignty, or about the Constitution or Bill of Rights themselves.

    All Ol’ Donaldo need do is ensure he has an ‘R’ behind his name and that he mouths pandering platitudes and mouths populist rhetoric. As long as Donaldo does that, none of his Statist federal-supremist collectivist beliefs, including his long history and current support of gun-control, will make a bit of difference.

    it suffices that he mouths certain red-meat things that whip up the ‘merican gun-owning police-state loving patriots and it matters that he isn’t Hillary (or the ‘D’ de juor).

    Ol’ Donaldo is the perfect match for the NRA’s endorsement because they both support gun-control, federal/state supremacy, govt permission to carry certain firearms in certain places by certain people in certain approved circumstances.

    That’s it. His beliefs don’t matter, his philosophy desn’t matter, his history doesn’t matter, his anti-constitution statements-pronouncements-expressed plans don’t matter. All that matters is that he isn’t ‘the other turd’.

    One can morph this current phenom with past exemplars….McCain, Romney, Bush, Dole, Bush the 1st and on and on….. Gee whizzers, I just cannot seem to puzzle out the likely outcome of such lesser evil/”Paradigm of The Lesser Turd’ support and voting.

    No evidence at all exists as to the outcome of such loyal ‘murican patriot voting, huh?

    Why, hell, look at how small and constrained we have made the govt by these choices. Look at the strict constitutional adherence from the fed-gov. Look at the fealty to and adherence to the Bill of Rights and to Individual Liberty that this lesser turd voting has achieved!!!

    Yah…victory ad success is ours…er, well, at least we are moving in that drection, right…er, well, at least the ‘other turd’ didn’t get in and, well, er… Ah, hell…..

    We all know that one must NEVER apply the yardstick of the Constitution, of the principles of Liberty or the founding principles to measure a candidate and to reject them if they fail to measure up….

    Nope, just stfu and vote Republican cause they aren’t as foul a turd as ‘the other turd’.

    And so the fall of the Republic continues, with the knowing and willing support of tens of millions of ‘patriotic ‘muricans’….

    Please join me in the obligatory slack-jawed, slope-headed, glazed-eyed, drooling-lipped anthem/’murican chant….USA…USA…USA…!!!

  25. Ok, so who else wants Dyspeptic Gunsmith as their dad, grandpa or trusted mentor? I signed up first!

Comments are closed.