Trump’s Anti-Gun Control Views Defy His City Vows

On Monday night during a moment of unscripted passion at a rally in Ohio, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump compared inner cities to war zones, even going so far as to make direct claims that Democratic leadership perpetuates issues of pervasive gun violence. Rather than addressing Hillary Clinton's email scandal and the FBI's decision to not pursue criminal charges, Trump claimed inner cities are worse than war zones under Democratic leadership. He then promised that if he gets elected, he will lower crime rates.

"You can go to war zones in countries that we are fighting and it is safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats,” Trump said during what appeared to be a concerted appeal for minority votes. He went on to also promise increased safety if elected: “We’ll get rid of the crime. You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”

However, his promise for decreased gun violence in inner cities is contradicted by the fact that Trump was endorsed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), and has touted himself as a crusader against gun control. At the NRA national convention in May, Trump said of his opponent: "Crooked Hillary Clinton is the most anti-gun, anti-Second-Amendment candidate ever to run for office." At a rally in August, he suggested that gun-lovers make moves against Clinton: "If she gets to pick her judges, there's nothing you can do. Although, the Second Amendment people, maybe there is."

The question at hand is: How will this pro-gun stance create the safer inner cities Trump promises?

So far, the proposed solutions for gun violence championed by Trump appear to heavily rely on increased access to firearms. Following the tragic shooting at the Orlando nightclub Pulse, Trump's initial suggestion was that if more people were armed, fewer people would have died. In a speech, Trump suggested that more guns would have saved lives:

If we had people, where the bullets were going in the opposite direction, right smack between the eyes of this maniac. And this son of a b***h comes out and starts shooting and one of the people in that room happened to have [a gun] and goes boom. You know what, that would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks.

Trump ended up backpedaling on his statement a few days later, after even the NRA claimed Trump's comments lacked common sense:

On top of his clear alliance with the NRA, Trump has promised to undo Obama's executive orders on gun control, with claims that increased background checks pose a threat to Second Amendment rights.

There seems to be a stark contradiction between Trump's pro-gun stance and his promises on decreasing violence in the inner cities. The Republican nominee may be attempting to court inner city voters -- especially, as of late, African-American ones. However, his current 1 percent rating among African-American voters (according to a national poll conducted by Quinnipiac University) serves as evidence that his contradictory stance on gun violence is not only obvious, but is also not working.