An “X” post by a Trump spokesperson implicated the former president in a crime.
What followed implicates the U.S. Government in something far worse.
But first, to clarify:
- By “X” I mean “Twitter.” Remember, Elon Musk changed the name of his social media company.
- By “Trump” I mean, of course, Donald John Trump, former president of the United States running the same office, a man surrounded by armed guards at all times.
- By “crime” I mean an infraction of federal law, not a willful abuse of someone’s rights at common law.
- The crime in question is the act of receiving “any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce” by a person “under indictment . . . a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Trump’s been indicted quite a number of times, recently, and therefore isn’t legally allowed to buy a gun.
The initial tweet said Trump admired a Glock that had his name stamped on it. It was the “Donald Trump edition,” gold-colored, retailing for under a thousand bucks. Trump’s on video saying he wants one of these handguns.
When X went all a-twitter with the implications, spokesman Steven Cheung took down his post and the campaign issued a corrective: “President Trump did not purchase or take possession of the firearm. He simply indicated that he wanted one.”
This is all explained by Jacob Sullum at Reason, who goes on to indicate that the law makes no real sense. The obvious absurdity of not allowing a well-guarded presidential candidate to guard himself with gun of any kind, that’s one thing. Flouting the Second Amendment by prohibiting the innocent, i.e. not yet proven guilty, from bearing arms, looks far worse — a policy of rights suppression.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Corrigendum notice: a correction was made late on the date of publication [Trump is not a “Jr.,” as originally stated].
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4 replies on “A Gun with His Name On It”
Rights have no practical protection when they can be denied simply because the person in question has been indicted, because the state can always indict us and, before we are cleared of any particular charge, the state can indict us on yet another.
G. Gorden Liddy, among others, has said you can indict a ham sandwich.
When was Donald John Trump, Jr. elected president of the United States? Are we in a time warp?
“All You Zombies” by Robert A[nson] Heinlein