Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accepted the endorsement of the National Rifle Association at the NRA Leadership Forum in Dallas on Saturday afternoon.
"It's a true honor to be here today to receive the endorsement of the proud American patriots at the NRA," Trump told the forum in a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 streaming platform. "These are great patriots. These are great people, and we're going to do things like nobody can believe.
"We're going to win this election at levels that nobody's ever seen before. Thank you very much for that endorsement — means a lot to me."
Trump denounced the Democrats, saying they put the Second Amendment "under siege."
"You know, when I started off, as you know, in 2016, I got that endorsement earlier and I got it," Trump continued. "Some people thought they had it made, but we got it. We got it again, and we've lived up to everything.
"They were just under siege with the guns, the rifles, and everything else. We're under siege, but they didn't move as an inch. And we have to stand strong. You know that. We have to stand very strong."
The NRA backed Trump during the 2016 race and throughout his presidency, cheering him on as he appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and took a series of steps sought by the influential gun lobby. That included designating firearm shops as essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to stay open.
Republicans, with the support of the NRA and other gun rights groups, largely oppose stricter gun laws, citing the right to bear arms established in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. That stance has remained fixed even in the face of a steady stream of mass shootings that have led to calls from many Democrats to impose more controls on guns.
Trump urged the NRA supporters to get the gun owners to vote, saying the percentage of gun-toting Americans who vote needs to tick up for him to win the 2024 presidential election.
"I will say and I say it as friends: We've got to get gun owners to vote, because you know what? I don't know what it is — perhaps it's a form of rebellion, because you're rebellious people, aren't you — but gun owners don't vote," Trump said.
"What is that all about? I've heard that. I heard it a few weeks ago."
Getting gun owners out to vote will turn the tide against Democrats, Trump concluded.
"For if the gun owners voted, we would swamp them at levels that nobody's ever seen before," he said. "So I think you're a rebellious bunch, but let's be rebellious and vote this time, OK?
"If you go out and vote — I understand exactly why you don't — but we have to win. This election is the most important election in the history of our country. You've got to get all your friends, all the gun owners. They have to go and they have to vote.
"If they vote, there's nobody that can beat us. Nobody."
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