Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Holds Rally In Green Bay, Wisconsin

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally on August 5, 2016 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Trump endorsed House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) during the rally in an effort to heal rifts within the Republican Party.

(Darren Hauck/Getty Images)

At a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Tuesday Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that "second amendment people" were the only ones capable of stopping Hillary Clinton from picking Supreme Court justices, should she be elected.

"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the second amendment," Trump said to boos from the crowd. "If she gets to pick her judges, (there's) nothing you can do folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know."

While not outrightly stated, the subtext appears to be that proponents of the right to bear arms would be the only ones who could influence Clinton's picks for the court.

How and why they would be the only ones capable of doing so is open to interpretation, but many on social media took the businessman's remarks to be a call to shoot his political opponent or her potential picks for the Supreme Court.

Did the GOP nominee just suggest firearms as a remedy to the Dem nominee being elected & exercising legitmate power? https://t.co/bifLWVpX4R — David Simon (@AoDespair) August 9, 2016

Many people are saying a presidential candidate shouldn't call for his opponent to be shot. — Adam Smith (@asmith83) August 9, 2016

basically endorsing the assassination of a president no? https://t.co/yusAesEP5C — 💀 damned sinker 💀 (@dansinker) August 9, 2016

Many people are saying a presidential candidate shouldn't call for his opponent to be shot. — Adam Smith (@asmith83) August 9, 2016

ex-CIA director Hayden on Trump comment: "If someone said that outside hall, they'd be in a police wagon being questioned by Secret Service" — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 9, 2016

In the past, Trump has backed away from his most controversial statements by calling them sarcasm or classifying them as jokes. But shortly after the rally concluded, Jason MIller, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, released the following statement:

"It's called the power of unification -- 2nd amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump."

Cathy Milhoan, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, told CNN's Jim Sciutto that her agency was aware of the remarks, but offered no further comment.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048