Trump's Niece Warns Republicans 'Banking on Paranoia' After Maine Mass Shooting: 'Fear That...Lurks Almost Constantly'

Author: Shanthi Rexaline | November 01, 2023 05:43am

Former President Donald Trump‘s niece, Mary Trump, weighed in on the recent mass shooting in Maine that left 18 people dead after a man with an AR-15 opened fire.

What Happened: The Lewiston, Maine shooting that happened last Wednesday was qualitatively different from other mass murders, Mary Trump said. “This tragedy has made explicit a fear that, for most of us, lurks almost constantly in the back of our minds,” she added.

After the 2023 mass shooting in Atlanta, Mary Trump noted that Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said, “It is not right for us to live in a nation where nobody is safe no matter where they are… it’s only a matter of time.”

The former president’s niece, who is also a psychologist, said this is “exactly the kind of paranoia and sense of imminent doom the right is banking on.”

History Of Gun Culture: The right to own guns became an individual right in 2008 when then-Justice Antonin Scalia, effectively removed the phrase “well-regulated militia” from the Constitution, Mary Trump said. The limits and federal regulations stressed by Scalia will not hold ground in the present-day “extreme gun culture,” she said.

The Supreme Court 2020 decision ruled in favor of petitioners in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., Et Al. v. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police, Mary Trump noted. They allowed unrestricted licenses to New York residents to carry a handgun in public, she added.

Little Hope From The Right: The psychologist and podcaster said following the 2022 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, the Republican-led states have continued to expand the rights of gun owners by crafting legislation that would enable teachers to be armed, allowing college students to carry loaded weapons on campuses, attempting to remove background checks, getting rid of red flag laws and limiting the number of gun-free zones, she said.

Mary Trump noted that Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) sought to ban assault rifles as the issue of gun violence had become personal for him. “We will see no such epiphanies on the right,” she said, adding, “As accidental Speaker and white evangelical fanatic Mike Johnson would have it, ‘The problem is the human heart, it's not guns, it's not the weapons.'”

Associations such as the NRF often pose as civil rights defenders and seek upholding of the Second Amendment of the Constitution that establishes the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

They have close links with the billion-dollar firearm industry in the U.S., which include defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC), and Raytheon Corp. (NYSE:RTX), among others. Smaller players such as Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR), Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWBI), and AMMO, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWW) are also among those manufacturing guns.