Trump clarifies stance on guns after NRA criticism

Donald Trump sought to clarify his positions on guns on Monday, the morning after the National Rifle Association’s top two officials said his advocacy of Second Amendment rights had gone too far — even for them.

At a Friday night rally in Houston, Trump suggested that the terrorist attack at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub might have been avoided or least made less deadly if more people inside the club had been armed. It would have been a “beautiful sight,” Trump said to the raucous Texas crowd, to see armed patrons shoot “the son of a bitch.”


But Monday morning, Trump backed away from that comment in a post to Twitter, writing that he was “obviously talking about additional guards or employees.”

The presumptive Republican nominee’s backtracking brings him in line with the NRA after the gun-rights group's top two officials criticized Trump in separate appearances on Sunday-morning political talk shows.

NRA Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he didn’t think “we should have firearms where people are drinking.”

Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, was sharper in his criticism of Trump’s stance. “No one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms,” Cox said on ABC’s “This Week.” “That defies common sense. It also defies the law. It's not what we're talking about here.”

View NRA's Wayne LaPierre is against guns in nightclubs The National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre is against guns in nightclubs. He was asked to respond to Donald Tumps suggestion that Orlando would have been different if the nightclub goers had been armed.

The NRA later tried to clarify LaPierre’s statement on Twitter, writing on his behalf that it’s fine to carry a gun in a restaurant or bar serving alcohol as long as you do not plan to drink.

It's not the first split between Trump and the NRA, which endorsed him in May at its leadership forum in Louisville, Kentucky.

Last week, Trump promised to meet with the NRA "about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns."

“Our position is no guns for terrorists — period," the association replied. “Due process & right to self-defense for law-abiding Americans.”