Speeches highlight divisions on guns

Associated Press

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are courting voters on opposite sides of the gun debate in events that highlight the nation’s deep divide on the topic.

On Friday, Trump promised gun-rights enthusiasts at the NRA convention in Louisville, Ky., that he would never let them down. He called Clinton “the most anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment candidate to run for office.”

Clinton will appear today in Florida with the mother of Trayvon Martin and other parents who have lost children to gun violence. She has become a forceful advocate for restrictions meant to reduce the nation’s 33,000 annual gun deaths.

The dual appearances underscore the opposing positions the candidates have staked out on gun rights and safety, the prominent role the issue might play in the general election and the national policy implications for the next president.

“Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment,” Trump said in his speech to the NRA. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

Clinton has said she supports the Second Amendment but that commonsense safety measures are needed to keep firearms out of the wrong hands. She has called for expanding background checks to sales at gun shows and online purchases, and for reinstating a ban on assault weapons.

She has often campaigned with families of gun violence victims and will rejoin many today as the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the Trayvon Martin Foundation. The fatal shooting of the unarmed black teenager in 2012 continues to be a flashpoint in the debate. Former neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman recently moved to auction off the gun he used in the slaying.

In response to Trump’s comments to the NRA, Clinton’s campaign said she supports balancing gun rights with commonsense actions to keep people safe. Among those would be safe-storage laws designed to prevent toddlers from accessing guns.