US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday channeled 1970s action star Charles Bronson in defending gun rights in the aftermath of the shooting at an Oregon college that left nine dead.
Trump, the billionaire businessman and early Republican front-runner, said in a rally in suburban Nashville, Tennessee, that he has a handgun carry permit in New York. He added that any attacker would be “shocked” if he tried to assault him, and that he would emulate Bronson in the vigilante film Death Wish.
“Can you imagine with Trump, somebody says: ‘Oh, all these big monsters aren’t around, he’s easy pickins,’ and then ... puching,” Trump said to laughter and applause.
“So this is about self-defense, plain and simple,” Trump added.
Trump criticized “gun-free zones,” saying that the Oregon shootings could have been limited if instructors or students had been armed. He said better mental health care would help curb future shootings.
“Many states and many cities are closing their mental health facilities and closing them down, and they’re closing them because they don’t have the funding,” he said. “And we have to start looking much stronger into mental health.”
While Trump said that “no matter what you do, you will always have problems.” He also said that it does not make sense to limit access to firearms.
“It’s not the guns,” Trump said during his hour-long speech. “It’s the people, it’s these sick people.”
He also criticized US President Barack Obama’s comments in response to the shootings as “divisive.”
Trump’s positions on gun control have evolved significantly over the years. While he now touts the stance of the US’ powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby, he once backed the ban on assault weapons and longer waiting periods for gun purchases.
Trump reminisced about Bronson’s Death Wish and got people in the crowd to shout out the title of the 1974 film in unison. In the movie, an affluent liberal architect embarks on a vigilante mission after his life is shattered by thugs who kill his wife and rape his daughter.
“Today you can’t make that movie, because it’s not politically correct,” Trump said.
Saturday marked the second time Trump had spoken in the Nashville area in five weeks. Tennessee is among the states holding their primaries on March 1, the so-called Super Tuesday, and he said that his comments brought a strong response from the overflow crowd in gun-friendly Tennessee.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia