J.D. Vance used part of his speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday to proudly share that his grandmother kept more than a dozen loaded guns stashed around her house—a story he told less than a week after Donald Trump was shot at a rally in an attempted assassination attempt. And Republicans, unsurprisingly, loved it!
Speaking from Milwaukee on the third night of the convention, the Ohio senator told the crowd:
Given that Donald Trump was recently shot at, did the crowd fall silent at the mention of Mamaw’s gun collection? Did they murmur to themselves about how irresponsible it was to keep handguns under the bed and in a drawer, rather than responsibly locked up? Did they start a “too soon” chant? Obviously, the answer is no, no, and “have you met a Republican lately?"
Instead, the group erupted in laughter and then proceeded to applaud they idea of someone keeping 19 guns hidden around their house.
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Republicans have blamed everything from the Secret Service to Democrats to the media for the attempt on Trump’s life—but have refused to admit that America has a gun problem. “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Representative Wesley Hunt said this week at event in Milwaukee hosted by the US Concealed Carry Association. “That son of a bitch is now dead because a good guy with a gun shot him, so let’s keep that in mind. The insinuation that we’re going to just eradicate this country of guns is a ridiculous one, so you better arm yourself accordingly.”
On Tuesday, three days after Trump was shot, a senior campaign adviser declared that loosening gun laws even further would be a major priority in a second Trump administration.
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