Donald Trump drew widespread condemnation – and the attention of the U.S. Secret Service – after apparently threatening political violence against his rival, Hillary Clinton. The Republican presidential candidate suggested that “Second Amendment people” could stop Clinton from appointing pro-gun control judges after she’s elected, although his campaign tried to claim his comments were meant only to rally pro-gun voters to support Trump in November’s election. However, his comments are part of a widespread belief that the Second Amendment covers the right of gun-owning Americans to use violence to settle political disagreements their First Amendment rights can’t solve.
It comes as no surprise, then, that former Governor of Alaska and Republican pundit Sarah Palin agrees with her party’s presidential nominee. During an interview with The Huffington Post, Palin said she supported Trump’s recent rhetoric. “I really think the man is onto something here,” she argued. “I mean, at the end of the day, gun control is really going to do more damage in and to this country than any Muslim terrorist, refugee crisis or recession ever could. If you take away the right to own and bear arms from Americans, you’ll be taking from them the very thing that makes them citizens of this great country. And that’s something our forefathers would never agree with.”
Palin conveniently summed up her opinion with one question: “At the end of the day, why do we need guns if we’re not allowed to use them?” She also added, “And to be quite honest, I’m baffled by some of the answers I get to that question. Just the other day, for example, I was at my grandson Tripp’s kindergarten holding a presentation on what I do for a living, and this kid, he must have been like 7 years old or something, this kid asks me, ‘Mrs. Palin, my dad says guns are bad because they kill people, so why are you saying that we need more of them?’ And I’m like, woah, that kid is sharp, you know what I mean? So I told him that guns don’t kill people and that it was, in fact, people who kill people. I then explained to him that we need more guns to protect ourselves from those bad people who want to hurt others.”
After demonstrating how she contributed to America’s youth with her dreadful twisting of an innocent child’s mind, the former half-term Alaskan governor also reiterated Donald Trump’s position that people have the right to act according to their 2nd Amendment rights if the 1st Amendment “isn’t getting the job done.” “What pains me the most about this whole issue is the fact that no one seems to understand that this conundrum is exactly the same as the age-old question of what’s older, the chicken or the egg,” she said. “And just like that question, the issue of whether we need more guns or less is one that just can’t be answered, which by the way, doesn’t mean that we should stop trying.”
“And the way we’re doing that,” she continued, “is by trying to protect honest American homeowners and citizens. There’s a lot that’s wrong with America today, for sure. But guns don’t fall in that category. As a matter of fact, they’re the only thing allowing us to be who we really are – a nation of freedom-loving people who aren’t afraid to act when their liberty is in jeopardy. And that’s exactly what Donald Trump said. So, to sum it up: yes, we should act if the Supreme Court becomes too liberal, and no, that’s not violence. That’s well within every proud American’s constitutional rights. What’s more, it’s expected of all of us to act that way,” Palin concluded.
