“The Second Amendment is on the ballot in November,” Trump told the more than 7,000 NRA members gathered here for an annual meeting. “I will never let you down. I will protect our Second Amendment. I will protect our country.” Trump scores NRA backing and attacks 'Heartless Hillary' 'If your preferred candidate dropped out of the race, it’s time to get over it,' NRA leader says.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Despite his past support for gun control, Donald Trump scored the powerful endorsement of the National Rifle Association on Friday and turned immediately to launch a new attack line on his Democratic opponent.

Dubbing her "Heartless Hillary" Clinton, Trump and the NRA’s leaders cast the 2016 election in stark terms as a referendum on the likely Democratic nominee that carries long-lasting implications for gun enthusiasts nationwide.


“The Second Amendment is on the ballot in November,” Trump told the more than 7,000 NRA members who paid to attend his speech, roughly 10 percent of the 70,000 activists in town for the group’s annual meeting. “I will never let you down. I will protect our Second Amendment. I will protect our country.”

Showcasing his knack for nicknames and speaking in his characteristic vernacular, Trump drew hearty applause and two standing ovations during a speech that focused as much on a broad commitment to restoring the country’s strength as it did on guns and self-defense.

Trump emphasized his commitment to secure the border, a strong military and tougher crime laws. The 30-minute speech featured Trump’s hardest-hitting and most extensive broadsides against Clinton since he secured the GOP nomination earlier this month, portraying his likely general election opponent as weak in all the areas where he is strong.

“Hillary Clinton will release violent criminals from jail and put innocent Americans at risk,” Trump said. “I’m going to put criminals behind bars and guarantee that law-abiding Americans have the right to self-defense.”

Speaking in broad terms about safety, Trump referenced Wednesday evening’s disappearance of an Egyptian airliner and the advent of the terrorist group known as ISIS, or ISIL.

“I’ve been looking at airplanes getting blown up in the air; it’s just not the same,” Trump mused. “We’re going to bring it back to a real place where we don’t have to be afraid.”

Paris, Trump continued, “is probably the toughest place in the world to have a gun,” as he attributed last year’s ISIL-coordinated terror attack there to the country’s strict gun control laws. “If you would have had guns on the other side,” Trump said, “there wouldn’t have been 130 people killed.”

Beginning to read his prepared remarks from a teleprompter, Trump accused Clinton of having bad judgment and criticized her for saying “the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment.”

But he glossed over his own past support for gun control laws. So, too, did the NRA’s leaders, who set the stage for the presumptive GOP nominee by casting the 2016 election as a referendum on Clinton, whose election would lead to a “dark future” in which gun owners find their names on a national registration list and witness the gradual erosion of their Second Amendment rights.

“If she gets just one Supreme Court nomination, you can kiss your guns goodbye,” said CEO Wayne LaPierre, who promised that NRA members would affect the election and “make our country great again.”

Chris Cox, the NRA’s executive director, also urged the group’s members Friday to back Trump, despite his past transgressions on gun issues, in order to prevent a Clinton presidency.

“If we don’t show up at the polls in force this November, we will witness the end ... the end of individual freedom in this country,” Cox said. “That’s not hyperbole. It’s the truth. But first, we’ve got to get together. It's time to unite. If your preferred candidate dropped out of the race, it’s time to get over it.”

The focus on demonizing Clinton, not just by LaPierre and Cox but by Trump himself, gave a sense that NRA members and perhaps conservatives more broadly are likely to be motivated this fall by their antipathy toward her, which in many cases is stronger than their positive feelings about Trump.

On the issue of guns, Trump is continuing to rely on his two sons to allay any existing anxieties about his absolute commitment to the NRA’s agenda. He began his remarks Friday by noting how much they know about guns and how many guns they own. Next week, Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to appear with Cox at an NRA roundtable discussion in Washington with members of Congress to discuss issues affecting sportsmen.

When Trump addressed this same group last year, roughly a month before launching his campaign, he spoke for about eight minutes — including bringing his sons and a daughter-in-law on stage and explaining, “they know more about rifles, they know more about shooting.” Beyond a few declarations of “I love the Second Amendment,” he focused on the “tremendously horrible, inconceivable” Iran deal and jobs moving to China and Mexico.

Trump didn’t always “love the NRA.” In his 2000 book “The America We Deserve,” he knocked Republicans who “walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions” and said that while he “generally” opposes gun control, there should be a ban on assault weapons and a longer waiting period.

Following the Newtown school shooting in December 2013, Trump tweeted that President Barack Obama’s speech, in which he called for action on gun control, “spoke for me and every American.”

That was all gone by last summer. Trump told NBC in July that any steps to make buying guns harder puts the country on “the slippery slope, where all of a sudden you are going to violate the Second Amendment.” He released his full gun policy platform in September. He rejected any new bans on categories of guns and scoffed at further expanding background checks. Instead, he called for harsher punishments for people who commit violent crimes and fixing the mental health system. Trump also called for expanding gun rights, including making concealed carry permits valid nationwide and allowing guns on military bases and at recruiting centers.

“We’re getting rid of gun-free zones,” Trump said again Friday.

Clinton took aim at Trump’s toughening position on guns in a tweet last week, pointing to his January declaration in Vermont that he “will get rid of gun free zones” on school campuses and military bases, promising immediate action.

"My first day, it gets signed, OK?” he said. “My first day. There's no more gun-free zones."

As eager as Democrats are to draw a contrast between Clinton and Trump, who they believe is cynically playing on people’s fears, they couldn’t resist pointing out the Republican’s reversals.

“We all know that Donald Trump in the past has been open to some reasonable measures,” said Tom Mauser, whose son died in the 1999 Columbine shooting, during a conference call Friday organized by gun control advocates. “This is one place where he cannot stray. He has to worship at the altar of the NRA on these issues.”

Trump’s speech was an effort to reassure gun owners that, whatever their concerns about his past trespasses on their signature issue, that he will be a far better advocate for them and do more to ensure the country’s safety and security than the likely Democratic nominee.

“The Second Amendment is important, but it’s not the only issue," said Jim Renner, an NRA member from Eaton, Ohio. “I think most people realize it’s either Trump or whoever wins the Democratic primary, and that that’s not really an option.”

Many of the activists here who support Trump are more enthusiastic about the opportunity to send a message by electing a political outsider than they are motivated by his position on the Second Amendment or any other singular issue.

“I’m so sick of the same old, same old in Washington, people who are all in bed with each other and not doing anything for the people of this country,” said Katherine Bricking, 53, a nurse from Louisville and a registered Democrat. “My whole family are registered Democrats, including my mother, who voted for Obama. And this time we’re all voting for Trump.”

But those activists for whom the Second Amendment remains an essential litmus test are skeptical about Trump's recent conversion to the conservative orthodoxy on guns.

“If it were Ted Cruz talking passionately about the Second Amendment, I would be up on my feet because I believe him,” said Laura Carno, an NRA member and conservative activist from Colorado Springs who was instrumental in mounting a successful 2013 recall election against Democratic state lawmakers who passed tougher gun control measures.

“I’m just not sure I believe Trump given all of his flip-flops on this issue. I look forward to him trying to earn my vote, but it’s an uphill climb. If the election were today, I would probably be bubbling in the circle for Gary Johnson.”

Sarah Wheaton contributed to this report.