Buried in a Washington Post article dwelling mostly on Trump’s obsession with the Russian investigation is the following:
[President Trump] surveyed Mar-a-Lago Club members about whether he ought to champion gun control measures in the wake of last week’s school massacre in nearby Parkland, telling them that he was closely monitoring the media appearances by some of the surviving students, according to people who spoke with him there.
Who are the members surveyed?
Most are unknown, however, last year Politico published incomplete lists of Mar-a-Lago's members, “many of whom are Wall Streeters, real estate moguls, energy executives, and Trump campaign donors,” according to Business Insider.
It’s not known at this point what the members told Trump.
During the election, Trump opposed restrictions on so-called assault weapons, claimed to support the Second Amendment, and endorsed the NRA.
“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice. The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own,” a platform statement on his website said.
During a campaign rally he said Clinton would enact anti-gun measures. “Clinton wants to abolish the 2nd amendment,” he told his supporters. “If she gets her judges, there will be nothing you can do, folks.”
“2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power,” Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said at the time. “And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.”
In May 2016, Newsweek reported:
Since declaring his presidential bid in June, Trump has called on the government to expand gun rights for law-abiding citizens while arguing many times that arming civilians could stop mass shootings—a notion also pushed by the NRA and other pro-gun activists. He’s also called gun-free zones a “catastrophe” and a “feeding frenzy for sick people.”
Many Americans voted for Trump because he promised to defend the Second Amendment.
It’s now possible he may betray another segment of his base.
