Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that gun rights activists could act to stop Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from nominating liberal US Supreme Court justices, igniting yet another fire storm of criticism just as he sought to steer clear of controversy.
“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” Mr Trump said at a rally. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” he continued.
The US Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear firearms. Before the remark, Mr Trump had been emphasising his case against Ms Clinton, who is leading in national opinion polls in the race for the November 8 election. Some in the audience in North Carolina who were seated behind Mr Trump could be seen wincing when he made the comment.
Immediately after the comment, many on social media accused him of effectively calling for Mr Clinton’s assassination. In just three hours, #2ndamendment became the top trending topic on Twitter, with more than 60,000 posts mentioning the term.
Ms Clinton’s campaign called the remark “dangerous.”
“A person seeking to be the president of the US should not suggest violence in any way,” it said.
When asked to clarify what Mr Trump meant, his campaign said he was referring to getting supporters of the Second Amendment to rally votes for Mr Trump in the election.
“It’s called the power of unification – 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power,” the Trump campaign said in its statement.
