Here’s Why I’m Not Worried About Trump’s Comments On Guns

Recently, at a meeting with members of Congress discussing measures to strengthen student security after the most recent school shooting that left 17 people dead, Trump made some comments that have sent conservatives for a loop and NeverTrump Republicans to shout “See! I told you he was no conservative!” I will carefully explain just why that’s an idiotic statement in a moment, but first, I’ll share the concerning comments made by the POTUS.
 
“I don’t want mentally ill people to be having guns. You have to do something very decisive. Number one, you can take the guns away immediately from people that you can adjudge easily are mentally ill, like this guy. You know, the police saw that he was a problem, they didn’t take any guns away. Now, that could have been policing. I think they should have taken them away anyway, whether they had the right or not. But I’ll tell you this, you have to have very strong provisions for the mentally ill.”
 
This isn’t the only thing that had conservatives worried, but let’s focus on this for now. You can clearly see why conservatives sort of panicked over this. I won’t lie, that’s a pretty Leftist comment. Taking away someone’s gun without due process is the stuff of fascists.
 
I can understand conservatives’ worries here. Who’s to determine if someone is mentally ill? There’s nothing to stop any Leftist from calling me mentally ill and wanting to take away my weapons. But, again, I’ll soon get to the reason why I’m not too worried about this.
 
First, let’s continue with the other comments that have made conservatives worried and Democrats like Diane Feinstein show more excitement than she ever has in her entire life.
 
At one point, Vice President Mike Pence said that Republicans in Congress want legislation that could allow for friends and family to apply to a court to suspend 2nd Amendment rights for someone who’s dangerously mentally ill and mentioned that, with that sort of due process, the rights given to us by the 2nd Amendment would not be infringed.
 
Trump stepped in by saying: “Or, Mike, take the firearms first, and then go to court. Because that’s another system, because a lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures, I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida… To go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.”
 
Now, Tom Maguire, a conservative pundit, has one explanation that may make some sense of this.
 
Tom wrote on his twitter account that: “On Trump’s no ‘due process’ quote: IMHO he misunderstood/misstated Gun Violence Restraining Order. Procedure is Court Order Confiscation Hearing to end or extend order. Trump conflated hearing with ‘due process.’”
 
So that offers some plausible explanation as to what Trump intended to say.
 
Again, I can understand conservatives’ worries over this sort of statement. It’s also a rather Leftist statement. What he’s talking about here would be the stepping stone towards turning this country into a socialist nation where people don’t have gun rights, or very restricted gun rights. You start by taking guns away from mentally ill people, then from “mentally ill” people (and I’m sure you know what I mean by that) and then from just people. I’ll be the first to say that it’s a very dangerous proposal.
 
Then Trump joked when talking about the NRA. He begins by saying: “I’m a fan of the NRA. There’s no bigger fan… These are great people. These are great patriots; they love our country. But that doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything. It doesn’t make sense… I have to wait until I’m 21 to get a handgun, but I can get [a long weapon] at 18. So I was just curious as to what you (he points to a Republican lawmaker) did in your bill.” The Republican replied: “We didn’t address it, Mr. President.”
 
Trump then joked by saying: “It’s because you’re afraid of the NRA, right?”
 
Again, that’s a bit worrying, but should be less so because it was very clearly a joke. Much as he joked that he hoped the Russians would find Hillary Clinton’s emails. The Left massively overreacted over that and actually theorized that he asked the Russians to hack into our elections. With this joke, I’ll take it for what it is: a joke. I’m not going to go the Ben Shapiro route and pretend it’s more than it is by saying: “Trump proceeded to rip on the National Rifle Association, and suggest that Republicans were in their thrall – just as Democrats have been maliciously claiming for years.”
 
He’s not suggesting a darn thing, he’s making a joke.
 
Then, Rep. Steve Scalise (yes, the same one that was in critical condition after a shooting targeting Republican lawmakers) said that the bill he’s proposed contains a concealed carry reciprocity statute. Trump said: “I think that that bill may someday pass, but it should pass as a separate bill. If you’re going to put concealed carry between states into this bill, we’re talking about a whole new ballgame. I’m with you, but let it be a separate bill… If you add concealed carry to this bill, you’ll never get it passed.”
 
Yet, Ben Shapiro took it to mean that Trump “dumped all over the idea of concealed carry reciprocity…” which is not the case at all. You heard Trump say that he’s with Scalise on the idea, but he’s concerned over the likelihood of that bill passing with that particular statute. Now, given that Republicans own Congress, it should theoretically pass if it’s a conservative bill. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen with the Establishment RINOs.
 
So Trump knows, after a year in office and trying to get things passed, that there are some things that are not too likely to get passed by GOP Establishment Congressmen. Now, typically, as with taxes, Republicans tend to be conservative about guns. But it makes sense that Trump might be doubtful of the bill’s success with that particular statute in it. Again, he’s not “dumping all over the idea”. He’s just trying to look at how likely it is to get passed in Congress and isn’t too sure about the likelihood that it will pass.
 
Now, taking everything that was said, I can understand if Trump supporters are confused and concerned over this. Here’s where I make my best attempt to give you peace of mind.
 
Over this past year, Trump has been one of the most conservative Presidents of all time. That’s in both policy and what he has said. Yes, this latest “mess” paints him in a Leftist light, but his record as President paints him entirely different.
 
I’ve seen some comments made on Twitter. One person said that Trump was always a “closet Democrat”. Well, if he’s a closet Democrat, he’s the worst Democrat the world’s ever seen. His track record as President shows very conservative. So he’s either the worst liberal of all time or he’s a very solid conservative. I’ve actually replied to the gentleman that made that comment and he replied by mentioning the “policy that conservatives around him are making.” As though Trump’s accomplishments aren’t his own.
 
I replied by pointing out his flawed logic here. So you’re saying he’s not a conservative because it’s the conservative people THAT HE APPOINTED that are making the policy? If he’s not a conservative, why would he appoint conservatives to his cabinet and to advise him? And don’t try to point to Ivanka and Jared being Democrats. Of course they’re going to advise him, THEY’RE HIS FAMILY! Besides, when all is said and done, I highly doubt that Ivanka and Jared will remain Democrat. The Party has already turned on them and their former friends in the media have attacked them as well.
 
The point I’m trying to make is that it’s honestly incredibly stupid and dangerous to overreact to this. Yes, what he said sounded pretty Leftist, but 99% of the time, he sounds pretty conservative. And 100% of the policy he’s enacted as President has been conservative.
 
If he wasn’t conservative, he wouldn’t have signed the tax bill into law. If he wasn’t conservative, he wouldn’t support the NRA.

If he wasn’t conservative, he wouldn’t have proposed ARMING some school teachers.

If he wasn’t conservative, he wouldn’t have pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.

If he wasn’t conservative, he wouldn’t have ended over a thousand regulations on businesses.

If he wasn’t a conservative, he wouldn’t have nominated a conservative judge to serve on the Supreme Court.

And if he wasn’t a conservative, he wouldn’t be the most pro-life President in recent time, having enacted executive order after executive order to stop using U.S. tax payer dollars to pay for International Planned Parenthood with the Mexico City policy.
 
By the way, he signed that executive order THREE DAYS after he was inaugurated.
 
No, those comments didn’t sound conservative at all. I’ll hold Trump accountable for that. But I’m also not going to overreact and demand his resignation over this. These comments shouldn’t automatically trump every other conservative action he made and conservative speech he gave. Do I think it was a mistake for Trump to have said that? Absolutely! Does this make me support Trump any less? Not really. Unless he actually did the things he talked about regarding taking a mentally ill person’s gun away without due process, I’m not going to freak out.
 
Again, his track record is that of a very conservative President. Reagan wished he could’ve had as good a track record by this point in his own presidency. Besides, and I’ve said this countless other times, he’s not an idiot. He knows that to break away from his base will mark the end of his administration. He knows that turning Leftist isn’t going to make the Democrats like him. The Democrats already have their minds set about him. They think he’s a racist, sexist, sexual assaulter who cheated in the election. Nothing he does will earn him their respect, and neither should he try to get it.
 
To try to get the Democrats to like you as a Republican is a fool’s errand. The media will still trash him, the Democrats still oppose him and he would lose the only people that supported him throughout all the b.s. he’s had to endure so far.
 
Truthfully, had he said this earlier in his administration, I would be far more concerned. In the beginning, he was a wildcard. We didn’t know what we would get out of him. All we knew is that he offered something far better than Hillary. Had he done this earlier in his administration, I would’ve thought he had conned us, as the Left keeps trying to convince us he did. But this past year has shown me that, even if he’s not an ideological conservative the way you and I are, his instincts and actions SHOUT conservatism.
 
Yes, he made a mistake in saying all of that. What he said was very dumb. But those kinds of words aren’t enough to make me believe he’s not a true conservative. We’re far enough into his presidency to understand what kind of President he is. He wants action and he wants to take care of things himself. As a businessman of a private company, he had all the power to make decisions by himself. He’s used to being in charge. As President, he’s in charge but he’s, thankfully, limited in power.
 
I’m not saying he wants to have the power of a dictator. I’m saying he’s more used to handling things pretty much on his own. If there’s a problem, he wants to be the guy to fix it. History has shown us that it’s a bad thing for the government to be in charge of everything. He often attacked D.C. for being inefficient, and he was right. But being efficient isn’t the same as being in charge of every single thing that happens in this country. You can have an efficient government and a powerful government without it being very big at all.
 
If there’s anything I can say that Trump needs to improve on is this: he needs to learn that the government shouldn’t be taking care of everything. “Government’s first job is to protect the people, not run their lives”, as Reagan once said. I’m not saying Trump wants to run people’s lives. I’m saying he needs to learn that there are a lot of things the government shouldn’t be very involved in. I like his proposal to arm school teachers, but that really should be it in terms of gun law changes (except maybe making it easier to get a gun).
 
Regardless, knowing Trump, he’ll learn from this. He knows not to abandon his base, for that will only cause his base to abandon HIM. I have no doubt, given his track record so far, that he’ll continue to be a very conservative President.
 
I believe God put him in the White House for a good reason. I doubt that Trump will turn Leftist in terms of anything regarding policy.
 
Jeremiah 29:11
“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”