10 February 2024 10:51 am Views - 754
(Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race, said on Friday he had firmly protected gun rights while in the White House and vowed if re-elected to undo all restrictions enacted by President Joe Biden.
Speaking to thousands of supporters at an event organized by the National Rifle Association (NRA), Trump promised to rescind a rule curbing sales of gun accessories known as pistol braces and other regulations put in place by the Biden administration.
"Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day," Trump said in a speech at the Great American Outdoor show in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania.
The NRA enthusiastically backed Trump during the 2016 race and throughout his administration, cheering him on as he appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and adopted a series of steps sought by the influential gun lobby.
These included designating firearm shops as essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to stay open.
Seeing conservative gun owners as critical to his re-election chances, Trump has continued to court them aggressively.
He told the crowd on Friday that if he is re-elected "no one will lay a finger on your firearms" and bragged about resisting pressure to implement gun restrictions during his term in the White House from 2017 to 2021.
"During my four years nothing happened, and there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing, we didn't yield," Trump said.
Republicans, with the support of the NRA and other gun rights groups, largely oppose stricter laws, citing the right to bear arms established in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.
That stance has remain fixed even in the face of a steady stream of mass shootings, and with the United States registering the highest rate of gun deaths among rich countries.