“He’s got a gun”

Gun control and gun rights have been a constant theme in this year’s election. Whether that be Trump telling Clinton to disarm her security guards or Clinton calling for the repeal of the District of Columbia v. Heller. On Friday night the issue of guns would finally hit home as Donald Trump would have his speech in Reno, Nevada interrupted by gun threats.

During Trump’s speech a member of the crowd would shout “gun” and set the audience into pandemonium. The suspect would be tackled to the ground by security and apprehended by the secret service. Trump would be rushed off the stage by security as well. It looked as if the speech would come to a grinding halt.

Trump was not done. After a short remission he would reemerge ready to continue his speech. Knowing Trump and his antics many expected a loud and condemning response from the Presidential candidate. Instead it as a short and precise reaction from Trump. He said “”Nobody said it was gonna be easy for us, but we will never be stopped”, and later followed up with “Nothing will stop us — we will make America great again!”

It is the precision and calm manor to this adversity that many did not expect from the republican candidate. Senator Clinton has worked tirelessly to paint the idea that Trump is unfit for office. That is the line of fire he would become irrational and hit the red button of doom. The opposite happen. Trump was faced with a threat, although after investigating no weapon would be found, and excelled with moving his campaign forward. Not only did he respond calmly, he managed to stay on track with his speech and work the incident to his advantage.

The third and final debate of this election was once again entertaining to say the least. It is hard for them not to be when two people dislike each other and disagree and absolutely everything the way the Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump do. Let us not forget that even though the debate seems more of a Saturday Night Live comedic spoof there are still very important issues being addressed by both candidates. During the debate both candidates were asked to address their views on the second amendment.

 

It was Senator Clinton’s response that “I support the second amendment” combined with her reiteration that District of Colombia v. Heller is incorrect that creates a vagueness in her stance on the subject. The District of Colombia v. Heller case ruled that citizens have a right to bear arms outside of the militia and maintain them with license in their homes for self-protection. If this ruling were to be incorrect as Clinton suggest, then citizens would not have the right to fire arms for self-defense. So what exactly does Clinton believe is wrong with the decision? The lack of a pronounced stand on what exactly she believes wrong with the decision that has many gun owners concerned.

 

Clinton would attempt to use her life narrative to support her claim to supporting the second amendment. The use of storytelling rhetoric within her response (in regards to her life in Arkansas) is unsuccessful as long as there is no clarity on to what extent she believe the decision in the Heller case.

 

Ruling of District of Colombia v. Heller https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-290.ZS.html

On Tuesday October 4^th, both Vice Presidential candidates gathered at Longwood University in Virginia. Both Senator Kaine, Hilary Clinton’s running partner, and Governor Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s running partner, gathered to participate in the event. Elaine Quijano was the moderator of the event, and would a vast variety of questions to both men. When Quijano asked Kaine whether ““we ask too much of police in our country?” that would spark gun control issues to life.

 

The response

It was Senator Kaine’s response that sparked a confrontation. Kaine said “I’m a gun owner, I’m a strong Second Amendment supporter, but I’ve got a lot of scar tissue because when I was governor of Virginia there was a horrible shooting at Virginia Tech. And we learned that, through that painful situation that gaps in the background record system should have been closed and that could have prevented that crime. So we’re going work to do things like close background record checks and if we do, we won’t have the tragedies that we did.” It was the first part of this statement that didn’t sit well with one of the largest Second Amendment right supporters in our nation. The Nation Riffle Association did not take well to this and would take the platform of Twitter to respond.

Here is a link to article containing NRA tweets http://bearingarms.com/beth-b/2016/10/04/nra-sets-record-straight-on-senator-kaines-gun-control-push/

 

Why Twitter?

The NRA wanted to separate themselves as far away from Senator Kaine and as quickly as possible. The quickest way in society today to send out a message is via social media. Social media gives an immediate platform to present your view point and also acquire immediate feedback from others. It is also massive, with nearly 313 million users on twitter alone. The NRA tweet rating Senator Kaine as an “f” would immediately be seen and redistributed across the web. The giant nature of the NRA and its close association with defending the second amendment, combined with the immediate distribution of their message was an attempt to separate Senator Kaine and the idea that he is a supporter of the 2nd amendment.

To say that Donald Trump is an outspoken man would be an understatement. This is a reputation that has followed him since the airing of his NBC television show the apprentice, as he often humiliated many of the contestants. Now as political figure he continues to make obscene comments. A major topic so far this election has been gun control due to the recent mass shootings across the nation. Trump’s comments on gun control in reference to Clinton have gathered media attention as many have perceived them as threats to her safety. This threatening style of rhetoric is Trump’s attempt to intimidate Clinton.

 

Miami Rally

On September 16th, at one of his own rallies, Trump centered a large part of his attention on gun control. His intent was to plant the idea that Hilary Clinton was attempting to demolish the second amendment. In his efforts to do this, Trump would make a series of statements that many have taken to be threat towards Clinton. Trump in short said that we should disarm Clinton’s body guards and see just how dangerous it would be for her. http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/09/16/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-guns-security-sot-acosta-erin.cnn This gathers immediate backlash that Trump is intentionally using his aggressive style of rhetoric to insight violence towards his opponent. This gathered the attention of Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook as he claimed the comments “should be out of bounds for a presidential candidate” before furthering this by stating “He is unfit to be President”.

 

North Carolina

On August 9th Trump would use his aggressive style of rhetoric towards Clinton. When speaking on the possibllity that Clinton would attempt to demolish the second amendment if elected, Trump would make a comment that many perceived as a direct threat to Clinton. Trump claimed there was nothing we could do to save gun rights if Clinton was to elect “her judges”, except for the 2nd amendment supporters may be able to find a way to stop it. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0 The immediate interpretation of his statements is that he is encouraging his supports to act violently towards Clinton. Former CIA director Micheal Hayden believed Trumps comments to be worthy of investigation, stating that ” If someone else had said that said outside the hall, he’d be in the back of a police wagon now.” In attempt to shed a positive light onto this aggressive statement, Trump’s campaign manager would call the statement a call to unify supporters of the second amendment to vote.

 

Trump’s aggressive style of rhetoric is largely why many people support him. They see him as relate able as he speaks his mind. On the matter of gun control it has played a different role. His aggressive style towards Hilary Clinton has been perceived as threatening and many believe it furthers the argument that his is unfit to be the President of the United States.