WASHINGTON — (CNN) Donald Trump on Friday took the stage at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, just moments after the gun rights group officially endorsed Trump for president.
Calling the endorsement a “fantastic honor,” Trump dove right into attacking Hillary Clinton, repeating his claim that the Democratic presidential front-runner “wants to abolish the 2nd Amendment.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said. “We’re going to preserve it, we’re going to cherish it.”
Trump addressed the thousands of NRA members gathered here after NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and the group’s chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, energized the crowd by bashing Clinton and urging Republicans to “get over” their sore feelings about the primary process and unite around the presumptive Republican nominee.
In a statement shortly after the group announced its endorsement of Trump, Cox said “the stakes in this year’s presidential election could not be higher for gun owners.”
“If Hillary Clinton gets the opportunity to replace Antonin Scalia with an anti-gun Supreme Court justice, we will lose the individual right to keep a gun in the home for self-defense,” Cox said. “Mrs. Clinton has said that the Supreme Court got it wrong on the Second Amendment. So the choice for gun owners in this election is clear. And that choice is Donald Trump.”
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