Trump Says He’s ‘All You Have’ Standing Between 2nd Amendment and ‘Chaos’

President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally in Carson City, Nev., on Oct. 18, 2020. (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump reiterated his support for Second Amendment rights at an Oct. 18 rally in Nevada, saying, “I’m all you have” between the right to bear arms and “chaos.”

“Here it is. It’s me. I’m all you have between your Second Amendment and chaos and all the problems. It’s me. I’m all you have,” Trump said at the Carson City event.

Trump has made his support for the Second Amendment a key feature of his campaign for reelection, while Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) are running on a platform of tighter gun laws.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control advocacy group, labeled the Biden–Harris campaign as “the strongest gun safety ticket in American history.” The National Rifle Association (NRA), on its website called the duo the “most anti-gun presidential ticket in history.”

Following a September incident in which two police officers were shot in California in an ambush-style attack, Biden called for tougher gun restrictions.

“Weapons of war have no place in our communities,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” His statement followed an earlier tweet in which he referred to a 10-year Senate ban on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines, saying Congress should never have let it expire. “As president, I’ll take on the [NRA] and we’ll ban them once again.”

Biden, in his “Plan to End Our Gun Violence Epidemic,“ calls for ending liability protections for gun-makers and enacting a ban on the manufacture and sale of ”assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

“The ban on assault weapons will be designed to prevent manufacturers from circumventing the law by making minor changes that don’t limit the weapon’s lethality. While working to pass this legislation, Biden will also use his executive authority to ban the importation of assault weapons,” the Biden proposal states. His plan also involves enacting tighter controls around possession of existing assault weapons and the launch of a buy-back program that “will give individuals who now possess assault weapons or high-capacity magazines two options: sell the weapons to the government, or register them under the National Firearms Act.”

Biden has also pitched mandatory background checks for all gun sales and legislation aimed at reducing stockpiling of firearms by limiting the number of guns an individual is allowed to buy to one per month. He has also vowed to close a number of “loopholes,” including one that lets people complete a firearms purchase if their background check is not completed within three business days, and end the online sale of firearms and ammunition.

Harris, during the primaries, vowed to fight for tighter background checks and “ban the importation of AR-15-style assault weapons.” At a Judiciary Committee hearing in 2018, Harris called for “common sense gun safety laws” and said “it’s a false choice to suggest that you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.”

While Biden has repeatedly rejected the claim that he’s opposed to the Second Amendment, at an Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s Presidential Gun Sense Forum in Iowa in August, the former vice president said, “the Second Amendment—no amendment is in fact absolute.”

He said the Second Amendment allows for some restrictions on gun ownership.

“Can you go out and buy a flamethrower? Can you go out and buy an F-15?” he said. “If you want to protect yourself against the federal government, you’re going to need at least an F-15.”