Daily Beast – February 28, 2018
In 2016, NRA-endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump won the presidency after many months of insisting that his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton was going to grab your guns.
In February 2018, President Trump publicly called for a subversion of due process, and for the government to “take the guns first.”
During a televised meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, the president and assembled legislators spent the hour riffing on ideas for securing schools and curtailing gun violence in America. Trump ping-ponged between various policy positions and postures, invariably making unforced interjections that would make his staunchest pro-gun supporters cringe.
When Vice President Mike Pence talked about how those who are a “danger to themselves or others” should have their firearms taken away, but also afforded due process, the president jumped in to one-up Pence.
“Or, Mike, take the firearms first, and then go to court,” Trump said, breaking with his own vice president on live TV. “Because that’s another system. Because a lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court, to get the due process procedures.”
The president continued, sounding like the caricature of “gun-grabbing” Democrats he’d once warned against: “I like taking the guns early. Like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida… To go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.”
"Take the guns first. Go through due process second," President Trump says at a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers. "I like taking the guns early." https://t.co/lQkq3krCWs pic.twitter.com/0iPywBQ66b
— CNN (@CNN) February 28, 2018
White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions on whether or not this was now the official position of the Trump White House. However, two administration officials told The Daily Beast that aides were already preparing “clarifications” for future statements or briefings in anticipation of being asked if the president wants to take away people’s guns without due process.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-goes-gun-grabber-prompting-white-house-clean-up
This means war, plain and simple.
“Due process second” is an oxymoron, because it denies us the process we’re due as Americans, and that one phrase undermines the entire Bill of Rights, and everything this country stands for.
President Trump just announced “I’m a stinking commie dictator, your Bill of Rights means nothing, and we’re coming to take your property simply because we believe we have the power to do so”.
I’m not a criminal or a lunatic, so I’m not going to any prison or nuthouse, and no one is robbing my house, either, tin badge on their chest or not.