In the aftermath of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting Donald Trump repeated something along the lines of the age-old adage—the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
The attack took place on June 12, leaving 49 dead and 40 injured. The following day Trump appeared on Howie Carr’s radio show to discuss the tragedy, the Associated Press reports. “It’s too bad that some of the young people that were killed over the weekend didn’t have guns, you know, attached to their hips, frankly, and, you know, where bullets could have flown in the opposite direction,” he told the conservative radio host, essentially reiterating what he had said following the Paris attacks in November.
“It would have been a much different deal,” he continued. “I mean, it sounded like there were no guns. They had a security guard. Other than that there were no guns in the room. Had people been able to fire back, it would have been a much different outcome.”
But not even the National Rifle Association is on board with this one. “Of course no one thinks that people should go in a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms,” NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said last Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “That defies common sense. It also defies the law.”
Trump took to Twitter on Monday to clarify his comments, saying that “obviously” he wasn’t talking about the patrons:
When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2016
The NRA endorsed the Republican candidate in May. Trump announced last week—also via Twitter—that he would be meeting with the group to discuss a ban for those on the nation’s no-fly list, though he didn’t provide any additional details.
Donald Trump’s campaign declined to comment beyond his tweet.
