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2 Albertans accused of threatening to kill Trudeau, Freeland, Singh
Men from Edmonton and Calgary are accused of threatening to kill some of Canada's top government leaders.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump urged gun owners to vote in the 2024 election as he addressed thousands of members of the National Rifle Association, which officially endorsed him just before Trump took the stage at their annual meeting in Texas on Saturday.
“We’ve got to get gun owners to vote," Trump said a day after campaigning in Minnesota in the midst of his criminal hush money trial. “I think you’re a rebellious bunch. But let’s be rebellious and vote this time."
Trump, in his speech, said the Second Amendment “is very much on the ballot" in November, alleging that, if Democratic President Joe Biden “gets four more years they are coming for your guns, 100% certain. Crooked Joe has a 40-year-record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”
The Biden administration has taken a number of steps to try to combat gun violence, including a new rule that aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks.
Trump has pledged to continue to defend the Second Amendment, which he claims is “under siege," and has called himself “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House” as the United States faces record numbers of deaths due to mass shootings. Last year ended with 42 mass killings and 217 deaths, making it one of the deadliest years on record.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been criticized by Biden, specifically for remarks that Trump made this year after a school shooting in Iowa. Trump called the incident “very terrible” only to later say that “we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”
Speaking Friday in Minnesota, Trump said: “You know, it’s an amazing thing. People that have guns, people that legitimately have guns, they love guns and they use guns for the right purpose, but they tend to vote very little and yet they have to vote for us. There’s nobody else to vote for because the Democrats want to take their guns away and they will take their guns away.”
Trump, during his speech, also laced into independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him “radical left" and “a disaster,” and noting that Kennedy had once called the NRA a ”terror group."
Former President Donald Trump addresses reporters following the day's proceedings in his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York, on Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
“Don’t think about it. Don’t waste your vote,” he said. “He calls you a terrorist group and I call you the backbone of America.” (Kennedy later said in a Fox News interview that he didn’t remember his 2018 tweet. “I don’t consider them a terror group and I support the Second Amendment," he said.)
Trump noted he will be speaking next week at the Libertarian Party's convention and said he will urge its members to vote for him.
“We have to join with them," he said. “We have to get that 3% because we can’t take a chance on Joe Biden winning."
Earlier Saturday, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced the creation of a new “Gun Owners for Trump" coalition that includes gun rights activists and those who work in the firearms industry.
Biden has made curtailing gun violence a major part of his administration and reelection campaign, creating the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden also has urged Congress to ban so-called assault weapons — something Democrats shied from even just a few years ago.
Harris said in a statement before Trump's NRA appearance that “at a time when guns are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America, Donald Trump is catering to the gun lobby and threatening to make the crisis worse if reelected.” She said she and Biden "will continue to take on the gun lobby to keep Americans safe, while Donald Trump will continue to sacrifice our kids’ and communities’ safety to keep these special interests happy.”
When Trump was president, there were moments when he pledged to strengthen gun laws. After a high school mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and wounded 17 others, Trump told survivors and family members that he would be “very strong on background checks.” He claimed he would stand up to the NRA but later he backpedaled, saying there was “not much political support.”
Prominent gun safety groups that have endorsed Biden were planning to demonstrate near the convention center in Dallas where the gun lobby's annual forum was being held.
While Trump sees strong support in Texas, Democrats in the state think they have a chance to flip a Senate seat in November with U.S. Rep. Colin Allred leading an underdog campaign to unseat Republican Ted Cruz. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas in 30 years, the longest streak of its kind in the country.
Men from Edmonton and Calgary are accused of threatening to kill some of Canada's top government leaders.
For the second time in as many days, a woman's body was found near Vancouver's shoreline Monday.
Canadian athletes attempting to reach the podium at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will also be looking fashionable for the entire world to see.
New Zealand's coroner has ruled that four of its citizens died after ordering products from an Ontario man who is facing murder charges for selling poisonous substances.
The name of Calgary’s new event centre was unveiled on Monday. The arena will be called Scotia Place.
A Toronto woman who allegedly took 'intimate' photos of an individual who was getting a massage has been charged with voyeurism, police say.
U.S. President Joe Biden's endorsement of Vice-President Kamala Harris as his possible replacement stirred excitement among Democrats, but one analyst has concerns about what a potential Harris presidency would mean for Canada.
No one knows the importance of selecting the right running mate better than Vice President Kamala Harris.
If you're trying to get up to speed on Vice President Kamala Harris' swift emergence as Democrats' possible nominee this fall, you really need to know your memes.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.
A well-known childhood prank known as 'nicky nicky nine doors,' or 'ding dong ditch,' has escalated into a more serious game that could lead to charges for some Surrey, B.C. teens.
It's been more than a month since their good friend was seriously hurt in an accident and two teens from Riverview, N.B., are still having a hard time dealing with it.
Halifax bridges have collected thousands of coins from around the world.
A donated clawfoot bathtub has become the preferred lounging spot for a pair of B.C. grizzly bears, who have been taking turns relaxing and reclining in it – with minimal sibling squabbling – for the past year.
A pair of cemetery investigators are cleaning and preserving as many gravestones they have permission to work on, as they conduct their research and document gravestones.
After more than three years, a B.C. woman has been reunited with a lost family heirloom.