# Donald Trump winks and nods to the Second Amendment people

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [August 9, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283 "2016-08-09T22:03:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/41 "2016-08-10T00:23:51Z")

</div>

> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> So wait. It wasn’t “officially the moment at which the Republican party stopped being a party, and became the American fascist movement” when Sharon Angle talked about “2nd amendment solutions” 5 years ago? Trump may be despicable, but he isn’t even original on this topic.

It only ends the party when it actually begins to hurt them. You know, like how beginning a land war against the USSR in the late summer only signals the end of your regime when it’s winter and you don’t have enough warm coats and your offensives have all stalled.

More seriously: If people really begin to hit the GOP for saying insane shit, it will signal a truly massive political shift in this country. The GOP will go from being the party of Mature Adults who make Difficult Decisions to being the party of insane assholes who literally cannot be trusted to participate in a stable civil polity. Sadly, that might be too much to hope for.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/42 "2016-08-10T00:25:10Z")

</div>

> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> So wait. It wasn’t “officially the moment at which the Republican party stopped being a party, and became the American fascist movement” when Sharon Angle talked about “2nd amendment solutions” 5 years ago? Trump may be despicable, but he isn’t even original on this topic.

Angle was despicable, to be sure, but she was nominated by the fringe of her party in one state. Moreover, she was not aspiring to lead the armed forces, FBI, Justice Department, and CIA. Angle is a miserable little bitch, but nowhere near as dangerous as Trump.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/43 "2016-08-10T00:26:58Z")

</div>

> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> [Secretary of the Department of Trump Apologists, Rudy Giuliani, explains](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/290933-giuliani-on-trumps-2nd-amendment-comments-he-meant-you) Trump’s 2nd amendment statement. We can all relax now.

From your link:

> [@](#):
>
> “What he said very clearly was that if Hillary Clinton were elected president, she would get to appoint judges to the Supreme Court, and among the other things that they would do to destroy us, would be to do away with the Second Amendment and your right to bear arms,”
> 
> And what he meant by that…

Giuliani is so full of crap. If he doesn’t know that neither the President nor the Supreme Court has the power or authority to “do away with” any amendment to the Constitution, he’s more stupid than I thought.

Then why does Trump need an interpreter?

The only way I can deal with all this Trump-ness is by laughing. Because if by some chance he actually gets elected, I’ll sit in a corner and scream, and simply not stop.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/44 "2016-08-10T00:32:27Z")

</div>

I’ve listened to his comment several times now. Keeping it the context of his speech, it’s really hard to imagine he meant anything other than suggesting someone use a gun to prevent Hillary from appointing judges that may be unfavorable to Second Amendment protections.

Spin it any way you like, that’s what he meant.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/45 "2016-08-10T00:36:26Z")

</div>

The man is crude. Threatening fisticuffs against people? Suggesting that Hillary should be shot? He’s a circus clown, but scary in the way that clowns truly are.

> [@](#):
>
> Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.

He is all of this and more.

> [@BlakeTyner](#):
>
> At this point, I just want Trump to keep talking.

Me, too. And I hope that people really listen and realize how scary he is. Whether or not people vote for Hillary, I hope they vote for anybody but Trump.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/46 "2016-08-10T00:40:28Z")

</div>

> [@AustinJane](#):
>
> I saw a Twitter that really made me think. Trump is now protected by the Secret Service. What must they be thinking, the person they are protecting just put their coworkers guarding Hillary at risk. I doubt Trump even has a clue that those charged with keeping him safe would not think highly of this. 😉

As if Trump has ever cared what “the help” thinks of him. He’s probably busy trying to figure out how he can bill them for admission to Mar-a-Lago.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/47 "2016-08-10T00:46:14Z")

</div>

> [@kayaker](#):
>
> If his next fiasco involves him pulling out his penis and waggling it around, I’ll feel sorry for him and support institutionalization.
> 
> But nothing short of that would be a shock at this point.

If he did that it would be like the old joke. Trump would be asking “What do you think this is?” and I would reply “It’s something like a man’s penis, but smaller.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/48 "2016-08-10T00:46:23Z")

</div>

I find it even more unsettling hard on the heels of his suggestion that Hillary’s Secret Services agents disarm themselves. Taken together - it is fucking _chilling._

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/49 "2016-08-10T00:50:15Z")

</div>

Maybe we’ll get lucky here…

\*Threats against Clinton are covered by a special section of the U.S. criminal law code given her status as the wife of a former president and a major party presidential nominee.

Secret Service communications director Cathy Milhoan said to NBC News that the “Secret Service is aware of the comments,” regarding Trump’s remarks.\*

> **[Trump's gun comment interpreted as violent threat against Clinton](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/09/trump-suggests-hillary-be-shot-in-speech-clinton-camp-calls-remarks-dangerous.html)**
>
> Donald Trump creates another firestorm when he seems to suggest violence as means of preventing Hillary Clinton from nominating judges.

Lock him up…lock him up…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/50 "2016-08-10T00:50:56Z")

</div>

> [@AustinJane](#):
>
> Trump is now protected by the Secret Service. What must they be thinking, the person they are protecting just put their coworkers guarding Hillary at risk. I doubt Trump even has a clue that those charged with keeping him safe would not think highly of this. 😉

Could be. But anything he could say, that would make him and not the Olympics the top story, is going to have negatives.

If you assume that he has a strategy, and thinks that he’s still far enough from the election so that bad publicity is better than none, and that free media is essential, this is a tricky time for him. I guess he could try some slander having to do with IQ and race. Now there’s something to keep the Olympics, and Hillary, below the fold! Maybe next week Trump will go there.

How many more ways are there to show he’s unafraid of elite opinion? Hopefully, few, in which case he’s in trouble.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/51 "2016-08-10T00:56:10Z")

</div>

I don’t think Trump was genuinely suggesting the someone murder Clinton. It’s a jokey sort of statement, the sort of tasteless, tacky thing that assholes like him love to say to each other.

But he doesn’t realize the implications of the reach that his comments have now. It didn’t take much for wingnuts like Hinckley and Manson to read “messages” into what they heard and read. And a big part of Trump’s audience is white male assholes who are are slowly losing their privilege and are angry about it, and to them, equality feels like oppression. Gingrich is on TV telling them that their feelings are fact.

I’m genuinely afraid of what Trump is inspiring in my country right now.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/52 "2016-08-10T01:11:24Z")

</div>

I never thought I’d see the day where fomenting assassination and armed insurrection would be considered a legitimate plank of the platform of the nominated candidate for president of the GOP.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/53 "2016-08-10T01:15:06Z")

</div>

> [@Leo\_Krupe](#):
>
> Giuliani is so full of crap. If he doesn’t know that neither the President nor the Supreme Court has the power or authority to “do away with” any amendment to the Constitution, he’s more stupid than I thought.

Large sections of the government, both feds, and many states, have been assiduously and continuously trying to do away with the 2nd Amendment ever since the National Firearms Act of 1934.

By the way–  
I wish I could remember who wrote this: “The quickest way to get a reputation as a dangerous person is to go around repeating things that the Founding Fathers said.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/54 "2016-08-10T01:22:32Z")

</div>

You guys are all completely wrong.

DrDeth already proved that there are no such thing as [dog whistles](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=799442&). If Trump didn’t say specifically that he wanted Clinton assassinated, absolutely none of his audience could ever infer it from his words.

Nothing to see here. Go away.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/55 "2016-08-10T01:23:32Z")

</div>

> [@Count\_Blucher](#):
>
> I never thought I’d see the day where fomenting assassination and armed insurrection would be considered a legitimate plank of the platform of the nominated candidate for president of the GOP.

I guess it’s your lucky day!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/56 "2016-08-10T01:27:43Z")

</div>

> [@JSexton](#):
>
> I don’t think Trump was genuinely suggesting the someone murder Clinton. It’s a jokey sort of statement, the sort of tasteless, tacky thing that assholes like him love to say to each other.
> 
> But he doesn’t realize the implications of the reach that his comments have now. It didn’t take much for wingnuts like Hinckley and Manson to read “messages” into what they heard and read. And a big part of Trump’s audience is white male assholes who are are slowly losing their privilege and are angry about it, and to them, equality feels like oppression. Gingrich is on TV telling them that their feelings are fact.
> 
> I’m genuinely afraid of what Trump is inspiring in my country right now.

He’s made too many statements that can be read to mean different things but clearly read a particular way to believe it’s anything but deliberate.

Lewendowski , on CNN, just said (paraphrased) we should be talking about Clinton’s policies and Benghazi, that’s the kind of gun violence we should be doing something about.

No wonder the campaign is so screwed up. They’re all dizzy from the spinning.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/57 "2016-08-10T01:29:28Z")

</div>

> [@Flyer](#):
>
> I wish I could remember who wrote this: “The quickest way to get a reputation as a dangerous person is to go around repeating things that the Founding Fathers said.”

Violent revolutionaries, who launched a major war against the mildest of colonial rulers, did say things that an average non-revolutionary person might find alarming. If those founders had lost their revolutionary war, and you and I were now subjects of the Queen and her local governor general, under a constitutional monarchy, I’ll bet we’d consider that obvious.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/58 "2016-08-10T01:34:18Z")

</div>

The local ABC station in Sacramento called Trump’s comments a “quip”. I suggested on their facebook page that it was not a quip.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/59 "2016-08-10T01:37:58Z")

</div>

> [@Flyer](#):
>
> Large sections of the government, both feds, and many states, have been assiduously and continuously trying to do away with the 2nd Amendment ever since the National Firearms Act of 1934.
> 
> By the way–  
> I wish I could remember who wrote this: “The quickest way to get a reputation as a dangerous person is to go around repeating things that the Founding Fathers said.”

Which of the founders advocated assassination of elected American officials?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283/60 "2016-08-10T01:41:00Z")

</div>

> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> Which of the founders advocated assassination of elected American officials?

No presidential candidate in modern times, and probably no president ever (except possibly for someone like Andrew Jackson) has suggested that their political opposition be whacked or eliminated, even ‘jokingly.’

As I said, this is a fascist tactic. Those who try to explain it or minimize it are apologists for fascism, and they are enemies of the state.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283.md?page=2)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-winks-and-nods-to-the-second-amendment-people/762283.md?page=4)
