As President Barack Obama announced plans to use executive action to expand background checks for firearms and impose new licensing requirements, Donald Trump became the proud new owner of an AR-15 rifle.
At a campaign stop in New Hampshire Tuesday, Mark Limoges, owner of the local Black Op Arms, presented Trump with the late Christmas present in a controlled meeting at a local high school, where the secret service stepped in to render it inoperable, CNN reports.
“We heard Mr. Trump is excited about receiving it,” Limoges said ahead of Tuesday’s rally, adding the gun was a “thank you” for coming to town. “But the Secret Service obviously had some concerns.”
Agents “didn’t want to actually bring Mr. Trump to the gun store so they came today and picked the rifle up,” he said.
Limoges said the agents arrived early to his meeting with Trump to remove the weapon’s firing pin before it was handed over.
Limoges said his shop sent about four hours putting together the custom-built rifle, and they finished it off with the serial number 145.
“He’s our number one choice for president and we’re hoping he is going to be the 45th president so we gave him that serial number,” Limoges told CNN. “We just thought it would be a nice gesture.”
The hope, he said, is “maybe Mr. Trump will buy a second home in New Hampshire and be able to use his Black Op Arms rifle here in the state,” since there’s little use for the new gift in Manhattan.
“A lot of people use them as coyote guns, varmint guns, that type of thing,” Limoges said.
The gift came the same day President Obama announced plans to impose gun control through executive actions that will expand background checks and require licenses for those “in the business of selling firearms,” CNN reports.
“Every time Mr. Obama has made an announcement like that we have definitely seen an increase in our business,” Limoges said. “People are afraid about what Mr. Obama might do to take weapons away, so it’s been good for us.”
Trump told CNN earlier this week that “pretty soon you won’t be able to get guns.”
Trump’s New Hampshire rally at Stevens High School in Claremont drew more than 1,000 people. WMUR reports Trump’s comments to those in attendance were “unlike anything we’ve seen in modern politics, but some believe the fact that he says whatever comes to his mind is precisely why some voters like him so much.”
“I think this is part of his appeal … he doesn’t shy away from saying things that people might think but most politicians aren’t comfortable saying,” said Middlebury College political science professor Matthew Dickinson, who predicts Trump will take New Hampshire in the Republican primary.
“The question, I guess, for most New Hampshire voters – if not Trump, who?” Dickinson said. “Doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of support for any particular establishment Republican.”
Trump made that obvious Tuesday, when he touted his significant lead in the polls.
“When people say, ‘Why do you always talk about the polls?’ I say, ‘Because I’m winning!’ Believe me, if I’m not winning, I don’t talk about them,” said Trump, who also slammed Obama’s gun control efforts, as well as Hillary Clinton and his Republican rivals.
“I’m leading her, but I haven’t even started on her yet,” Trump said of Clinton, according to WMUR. “I have to get rid of these other people first! You have to get rid of them first. I like one thing at a time.
“Everyone says, Mr. Trump who is your vice presidential candidate going to be? I say, ‘I don’t think about it! I’ve got to get rid of these people first!”
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