never begun. it is time to put the blame where it goes, which is at the shooter's feet, and it is time to look toward those ineffective elected officials who refused to move and do the right thing but instead take the easy way out. the way out needs to be them out of office. so, guys, don't be weary of welldoing and do not be afraid to stand up for what is right because what you're standing up for indeed is right. stand strong. stand brave, stand proud. do not back down and never forget -- shall not be infringed. that is our motto, and that is what we will fight for. god bless you all. god bless texas. god bless north carolina, and

god bless the united states of america. thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪ fellow nra member and the 45th president of the united states of america, donald j. trump. >> ♪ and i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me and i gladly stand up new to you and defend her still today because there ain't no doubt i love this land god bless the usa ♪ [cheers and applause] ♪ from the lakes of minnesota to the hills of tennessee ♪

[cheers and applause] ♪ from sea to shining sea from detroit down to houston and new york to l.a. where there's pride in every american heart it's time we stand and say that i'm proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free and i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me and i gladly stand up new to you and defend her still today there ain't no doubt i love this land god bless the usa and i'm proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free

and i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me and i gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today because there ain't no doubt i love this land god bless the usa ♪ [cheers and applause] mr. trump: thank you very much. thank you, everybody. >> usa! usa! usa! usa! usa! mr. trump: thank you, wayne, and thank you, jason. i'm honored to be here in the great state of texas with the wonderful patriots of the nra,

and unlike some, i did not disappoint you by not showing up. [cheers and applause] gotta show up. for more than 150 years, the nra has stood strong in defense of our rights, our freedoms, our families, our law enforcement officers and take with liberties -- and sacred liberties, and together, we will be standing tall and strong for many years to come. i really do appreciate this incredible turnout. i want to express my gratitude to each and every one of the proud citizens here today. you are the backbone of our movement, and you are the backbone of our country. you know that. [cheers and applause] i just heard him, he made a wonderful speech, ted cruz, senator, thank you very much.

william, thank you very much. great job. governor kristi noem is here. thank you. doing a fantastic job in north carolina. there's a hot politician. there's a hot politician. lieutenant governor mark robinson. i don't know where mark is, but he is fantastic. we just had a very good day, as you know, in north carolina. as we gather this week, citizens across this state and this nation are filled with grief in the wake of a heinous massacre at robb elementary school in uvalde. you know all about that and what a horrible thing it was to see it, to watch it, to hear about it. the terrible murder of 19 innocent children and two adult teachers with many badly injured. it was a savage and barbaric atrocity that shocks the

conscience of every single american. i want to ask for a brief moment of silence as i read the names of these beautiful people. all young, wonderful lives ahead of them. they are brave teachers whose lives were destroyed by an out-of-control lunatic, so we will start. alexandria rubio. [bell tolls] aletha ramirez. [bell tolls] amory garza. [bell tolls] "annabell guadalupe rodriguez. [bell tolls] ellie garcia.

[bell tolls] jacklyn candares. [bell tolls] jose flores. [bell tolls] layla salazar. [bell tolls] makenna lee elrod. [bell tolls] miranda mathis. [bell tolls] tess marie mata.

[bell tolls] javier lopez. [bell tolls] two great and beautiful teachers . eva mireles, irma garcia. [bell tolls] thank you very much. a beautiful moment of silence for something that should never have even been thought about, let alone happen. each precious young soul that was taken is an incomprehensible loss. literally not comprehensible. stolen from us by a malice that no words can describe. sickness. the monster who committed this crime is pure evil, pure cruelty, pure hatred. absolute pure hatred. while those he slaughtered are now with god in heaven, he will

be internally downed -- eternally damned to burn in the fires of hell. [applause] as we mourn for so many beautiful victims, i know that everyone here joins me in praying for the families who are suddenly missing the brightest light in their lives. we see their agony. we ask god to ease their suffering and to heal their pain, and together we grieve side-by-side as one great american family. now is the time to find common ground. sadly, before the sun had even sat on the horrible day of tragedy, we witnessed a now mill your parade of cynical politicians seeking to exploit the tears of solving them a list to increase their own power and take away our constitutional rights.

every time a disturbed or demented person commits such a hideous crime, there's always a grotesque effort by some in our society to use the suffering of others to advance their own extreme political agenda. even more repulsive is their rush to shift blame away from the villains who commit acts of mass violence and to place that blame onto the shoulders of millions of peaceful, law-abiding citizens who belong to organizations such as our wonderful nra. when joe biden blamed the gun lobby, he was talking about americans like you can along with countless other democrats this week, he was shamefully suggesting that republicans are somehow ok with letting school shootings happened. they are not ok with it. this rhetoric is highly divisive and dangerous, and most

importantly, it is wrong. it has no place in our politics. as always in the wake of these tragedies, the various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horrors that took place. absolutely nothing. unfortunately, since columbine, we have been afflicted by a contagion of school shootings carried out by deeply evil, violent, and mentally disturbed young men. while we do not yet know enough about this week's killing, we know there are many things we must do. we need to drastically change our approach to mental health. there are always so many warning signs. almost all of these disfigured mines -- mines -- mr. trump: teachers, parents,

school officials need to be recognizing and addressing these alarm bells promptly and very aggressively. our school discipline systems, instead of making excuses and turning a blind eye, need to confront bad behavior quickly. [applause] mr. trump: clearly, we need to make it easier to find -- confinement the mentally deranged into mental institutions. we also have to deal with the problem of broken families because no law can occur -- cure the effects of a broken home. there is no substitute for a mom

and dad. while we work to address these issues and deal with this, all of us must unite, republican and democrat, at every level of government, to finally armor schools and protect our children. what we need now is a top to bottom security overhaul at schools all across our country. every building should have a single point of entry. there should be fencing, medical -- metal detectors and the use of technology to make sure no

unauthorized individual can and -- ever entered the school with a weapon. nobody should ever be able to get anywhere near a classroom until they have been checked, scanned, screened and fully approved. it is so important. in addition, classroom doors should be hardened to make them lockable from the inside and closed two intruders from the outside. above all, every school in america should have a police officer or an armed resource officer on duty at all times. moreover, at every police department, we need a rigorous training on active shooter protocols to immediately locate and eliminate the target. it took too long.

we need to expand funding, recruiting and training for police departments nationwide. this is not the matter of money, this is a matter will. the united states has $40 billion to send to ukraine. we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safer. we spent trillions in iraq, afghanistan. we got nothing. before we nation build the rest of our school -- the rest of the world, we should be doing that for our own schools. last year, joe biden and democrats sent billions of

dollars to k-12 schools even while they were keeping many of our schools totally shut down. similarly worsening the mental health challenge of many youth. many of these young people really suffered very greatly and became very ill. congress should vote to take back every penny of unused covid relief money. use that money to quickly establish security at every school all across our land. in their city schools rarely have these kinds of mass shootings. i did not know that. they rarely have this problem despite being located in very tough neighborhoods in many

cases where there are tremendous levels of high crime. they are much more dangerous outside the school than inside. the reason is inner-city schools have had much stronger security measures in place in the school spirit including metal detectors and armed guards. whatever our differences may be another issues, what on earth is stopping democrats from immediately passing measures to ramp up school security? how many more tragedies will it take until they agree to set aside the far left political agenda and do what is really needed and what actually works? if this is not about virtue signaling.

this is about saving our children's lives. surely we can all agree our schools should not be targets. our schools should be the single hardest target in our country. that is why as part of a comprehensive school safety plan it is time to allow highly trained teachers to conceal carry. let them conceal carry. they have to be able to handle it. i have to be highly trained. let them do that. it would be so much better and so much more effective. there is no sign more inviting to ms killer than -- two i -- to

a mass killer than a place that is a gun free zone. it is a total disaster. gun free zone, they look at the sign and say that is where i am going. if somebody goes into that building, all of those innocent people will be taken out or be killed. bad things will be happening. as the age old saying goes, the only way to stop a bad guy with the gun is a good guy with the gun. have you ever heard that? in the absence of a member of law enforcement, there is nobody you would rather have a nearby when a crisis strikes an armed expertly trained member of the nra. [applause] mr. trump: let's not pretend

that those on the left are talking about just limiting one class of gun or one category of ammunition. we all know they want total gun confiscation. this would be a first step. once they get the first step, they both take the second step, the third, the fourth. the second amendment is totally under siege. which by the way we stopped it for four years. even if every honest american gave up their guns, the criminals would never give up theirs. they would wreak havoc like never before in her country. the fact is that there will always be sick souls who wish to harm the innocent and wish to

see malice to triumph over good. the existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens who can protect a lot of people. the existence of evil is one of the best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens. and that is why one of the core missions of the nra's to train, prepare and equip responsible american men and women with the tools they need to defend themselves, their families and their communities. every single year, the nra's highly trained instructors train one million americans to be safer unknown nurse, ready to act when the situation calls.

every day that training is protecting the vulnerable and safeguarding the innocent. the estimated 500,000-2.5 one million americans each year gives a firearm in self-defense. often they know you have it and they say no thank you. we are not going to mess with her. according to data from the fbi, last year there were four active shooters who were taken out by an armed civilian bravely exercising their second amendment rights, saving countless innocent lives. that is what the second amendment is all about. we are honored to be joined today by a true texas hero. the sunday after christmas in 2019, veteran firearms instructor jack wilson was attending services at a church

outside fort worth. he saw a strange man entered the church and after that, he never took his eyes off of him. he knew something was wrong. right up until the man approached the person serving communion and pulled out a gun. thankfully, after texas passed a law allowing concealed carry in places of worship, jack had volunteered to lead his churches security team and he knew what he was doing. jack and another congregant pulled out their firearms very quickly. the shooter going down jack's team member and killed the man serving holy communion. jack had only an instant game. he saw his chance and took out the shooter with a single perfect shot.

come on up here. [applause] come on up here, jack. [applause] mr. trump: stay right there, jack. thanks to jack's swift action, the shooter was down within six seconds from pulling his gun. with more than 240 worshipers in the church, jack had saved the

lives of an untold number of innocent people that he knew and loved very well. we want to thank you for a job well done. we salute you, a very good man. [applause] >> thank you each and every one of you. thank you president trump. you are still my president. [applause] >> what i did that day was not for my glory. it was to save countless friends and family. i hope you are never put in that

position, but understand if you are put in that position, you have to do what is right, not what somebody said you should not do that. no. i did not kill a human being that day. i took out to people. -- i took out evil. and just as what happened in uvalde, that was evil. you have to stand up and be prepared to protect and do what you have to do to stop people in this country. thank you. [applause] mr. trump: thank you very much, jack.

defendant our second amendment is about defendant law and order and life. as law and order conservatives, we have no higher goal than to reduce violent crime by the greatest degree possible. there is no mystery as to what is required. over the past two years our nation has paid a bloody price for the democrats defunct the police rhetoric and there weak on crime policies. in every city for the left attacked the police, slashing funding were hired radical prosecutors, violent crime has skyrocketed. last year there were all-time highs in record homicide and this year is looking our worst. -- far worse.

a man with a long criminal history was released on zero bail. weeks later he broke into an innocent woman's home, sexually assaulted her, murdered her and set her house on fire. this past february new york, another horrible person with at least six prior arrests was released without bail bigger -- before going on a stocking tour. she stabbed a woman to death and left her body in the bathtub. in philadelphia, a man murdered an innocent man walking his dog. the very same democratic politicians who stoped riots over a single police involved

killing two years ago are no to the mounting death toll of their own radical policies. but we must not be. we cannot let that happen. big city mayors like lori lightfoot in chicago, mayor muriel bowser in washington watched the slaughter and do absolutely nothing. but we must act. if america had a proper approach to policing and jailing, we could cut violent crime in our major cities by much more than half and it would take place almost immediately. under the greatest mayor in the history of new york, rudy giuliani, they cut violent crime by 58%. and the murder rate by 66% in just a few years.

under our own administration, we reduced violent crime three years in a row. the resurrected project safe neighborhoods, bringing together prosecutors and citizen groups to get dangerous felons off the streets. we funded 200 new violent crime prosecutors. we searched law enforcement officers to democrat run cities. when they started knocking down statutes in washington dc and other locations, i watched this in amazement. abraham lincoln, thomas jefferson, george washington, knocking them down. i signed an executive order which stated that anybody who defaces the federal monument or

stat you will get to a minimum of 10 years in prison. and immediately upon signing it, everything stops. there was nothing. i felt i had a political and moral obligation to allow democrat mayors and governors to run their cities when it came to crime and riots and even horrible violence. in my own mind, i was allowing the democrats to show how they would handle the situation and when it got out of control, i got involved. i called the national guard and federal law enforcement and be saved the cities of minneapolis, kenosha, seattle, chicago, portland. during some very bad times in

those places. but then they wander back to the past. if i ever do it again, run for president and win, i would no longer feel obligated to do it that way. i would crackdown on violent crime like never before. [applause] mr. trump: which is the way i would have liked to have done it the first time, but in a certain way, i am glad i did not. the most straightforward thing we can do to save lives from violence is to hire more police, arrest more violent criminals and get them into jail. and we have now seen what the democrats do when they are left to run the cities.

so now, it has to be done right. over time that will save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars. the same people that are lecturing us about gun confiscation of the ones taking jobs off the street and letting criminals out of jail, knowing it will get thousands of americans killed and killed very quickly. do the democrats even care? the radical left democrats are continuing to push to abolish cash bail and to strip our police officers of the qualified immunity. just this week the biden administration announced new policies threatening to hold officers liable for their misconduct and even for the misconduct of other officers.

a total destructive policy that will make our communities less safe. what officer is going to get involved if they think they can lose everything? the family, the pension, everything. it is crazy what is going on. if democrats truly care about stopping the bloodshed, the biden administration's warm police must end right now. [applause] mr. trump: we will no longer -- i knew it had to happen. who is that man? stand up, please. [applause] mr. trump: it had to happen. we will no longer defund the police and we will no longer

mention it. great american heroes. if allowed to do their job, they will do it like nobody else can. all of those crime statistics will be cut in such a big way, you will be so proud to be an american. when you see in chicago 80 people shot sometimes in a weekend and many people dying. that is a war zone. you will be proud to be an american. under a new congress next year we should pass legislation strengthening qualified immunity for our police officers. we have to do that. [applause] mr. trump: who would ever take a job without that? ruin your life if you have one

bad story that may be made up because the left bad stories are made up. our law enforcement do their duty to protect us and we must do our duty to protect them. we have to do it. earlier this week the law enforcement officer. the texas shooter rampage, was reportedly a member of the group joe biden has most viciously demonized, the heroes of border patrol. he was very brave. every day are missing border patrol agent's are risking their lives to keep our communities safe and when we regain control of congress we must do that. please remember that. we can step socialism and communism at one time.

wouldn't that be nice? we will once again give these great patriots the respect they need and dearly deserve. but we need eight. we needed more than they do. the crime crisis is fueled by the biden border crisis. when i left office, we handed the new administration the most secure border in the history of the united states. we ended catch and release. we ended asylum. we struck historic agreements with mexico. stay in mexico. by then immediately terminated stay in mexico.

gasoline just hit in a lot of places today, $9.25. we deported illegal alien gang members by the thousands and we built 500 miles of border wall. the exact same specification that the border patrol gave us. we built it and we built more. low and behold, the came in with a very bad at election, to put it mildly. they stopped building the border wall. when texas went to them and wanted to use the fencing that was already bought and paid for, they took it away. we gave them the best border ever and they turned it into the forest border nightmare of all time. -- worst border nightmare of all

time. under joe biden, it is always america last. it is even reported that the biden administration is considering putting united nations bureaucrats in charge of your second amendment rights. just like i am sure come up most of you have not heard this. i terminated the iran nuclear deal because it was a disaster. can you imagine russia and china saying she wants us to negotiate the deal for him. this is us said day. -- a sad day.

they want to reenter the ridiculous u.s. arms trade treaty. is there a substitute for lead, you people are better at this than me. they want to get rid of lead because it is environmentally unfriendly. the last time i appeared here, i signed a document. under my leadership we never surrender america's sovereignty and we always put america first. i remember in the early weeks of the biden administration, he said we are not going to stand

for america first. you cannot say that. all of the things we talk about, and many of the things we do not talk about, compared that with how great america was just two years ago. there was no inflation, the war with russia going into ukraine would never have happened. i spoke to putin about it. -- he didn't do it. sleepy eyes had to leak the fake press. did you ever meet the fake

press? president donald trump on the face the nation. that really should be the name of these shows. he was saying, how come this never happened with trump? don't forget, georgia was given up by bush. hate to say it. crimea was given up by obama and biden. nothing was given up by trump. and then all of ukraine essentially was given up by biden. what did they have left? with all the shooting, rockets, every city is rubble. there's no win here for anybody. this should have never been allowed to start. it would have 100% never started if we didn't have a rigged election. it would have never started in a million years. [applause]

we had one dollar 80 seven per gallon gasoline. think of that. energy independence. soon, energy dominance. we were going to be bigger than russia and saudi arabia combined by a lot. we were on the way. we were leaving afghanistan with dignity and strength, not surrender, death. leaving 85 billion dollars worth of beautiful brand-new equipment, giving it to the enemy. they are a tremendous arms dealer right now. they are selling mostly. the biggest arms dealer in many ways. think of it. 85 billion dollars worth of brand-new helicopters, planes, goggles. it's a terrible thing. i believe that was the lowest point in the history of our

country, i was the one that got it down to 2000 soldiers. we are going to keep bothering them. it cost them billions. we weren't keeping it for afghanistan. we were keeping it because it's one hour away from where china makes their nuclear weapons. we left it in one night. everybody was gone. they left the lights on. the dogs were left behind for those people that like dogs. we left and they don't like dogs. they don't like dogs. they don't like them at all. think of it. just think of it. billions and billions of dollars it took to build it years ago. now china is going to occupy it very shortly if they don't already. we had to completely rebuild military with the additionforce, first time in 78 years that that's happened. [applause] the air force was the last and now we have face force. that's going to prove to be a

very important group of people. that's exactly what it's going to be. they smiled when they saw it. the young woman with the very red hair who is now working for msdn see. you saw that. she said, space force. she started laughing. the military excoriated her. there was nothing funny about it. everybody is admitting it is so important. russia and china were way ahead of us in space but they aren't anymore. we had the biggest tax cap ever in the history of our country. we had historic job numbers. we did so much more. even right to try. you know what that is. we gave a person the right to try new techniques, new things, new medicines. many people are now in -- alive and well. they didn't have to go to asia or europe or go home if they had no money and die.

they've been trying to get it for 56 years. we got it done, past. we got it passed. not as easy as you would think. the drug companies didn't want it because they didn't want it on the record. the country didn't want it because they didn't want to get sued. we got everybody to sign waivers. we have it now. we are saving thousands of lives. it's incredible what happened. what it's doing is telling the drug companies upfront and personal whether or not something works. it's an amazing thing. as a candidate, i was proud to receive the earliest endorsement in the entire history of the nra. i tell you what, that was a very important thing. it was like getting into a great college. boy, that feels good. everybody wanted it. we had a total of 18 people running.

i appreciate your leadership. wayne and everybody else. they said, we really like trump. that was before we were enmeshed in the campaign. people weren't sure how that was going to work out. it worked out very well for the nra. we appreciated the endorsement very much. [applause] we got it the second time. 12 billion more votes the second time. how about that. we did much better the second time which is true. we got many more votes the second time than we did the first but we got two of them. if we do this again, we hope we will get a third. [applause] thank you. thank you for the leadership. as your president, i was proud to be the best friend of law-abiding gun owners.

we've been giving that credential over four years. we appointed nearly 300 federal judges to interpret the laws of the constitution as written including three great new supreme court justices. when the radical democrats tried to use covid to shut down gun stores during the pandemic, even as left-wing rioters burned down cities, i designated gun and ammunition retailers as critical infrastructure. cap so stores open. [applause] i canceled the obama administration's exploitation of social security data to deny americans their gun rights without due process of law. that was a big deal at the time. we ended obama's and norma's abuse power known as operation chokepoint under which government bureaucrats pressured banks to cut off services to

firearms and the firearms industry. we are optimistic that in the weeks to come, the supreme court will issue land drug rulings affirming that your rights to self-defense doesn't end when you step outside of your front door. very importantly, as president, i stood up for america's hunters and fishers and sportsmen like no administration since teddy roosevelt. he was good also i will say. we expanded access to 1.4 million acres of public lands for hunting, fishing, recreation. we gave the american people their land back. it was taken away by government. we stopped the obama area regulatory assaults on hunting, trapping, ammunition, and fishing gear. everyone here today is united by

one incredibly powerful bond. we are all citizens of the united states of america, the greatest country in the history of the world. we are not so great anymore. we will make it great. we will make it greater than ever again. right now, right now we are not respected by other parts of the world. we are not respected. we've never been in a position like this. i think it started with the border. i think it started with the horrible surrender that we had in afghanistan. remember, i spoke with the head of the taliban. some of the fake news that is here today with us. pleasure. wire we speaking to the back -- taliban? they asked jesse james, why do you rob banks? he said, that's where the money is. i spoke to the leader of the taliban and said, don't ever

kill any of our people. 18 months we went. 18 months we went without one american soldier being killed until that tragic day. i think that's what convinced putin to go into ukraine when he saw what was happening, the gross incompetence of what took place during that short time in afghanistan. that's when he decided to go in. he would have never done it. it's our citizenship that protects our birthright, our freedoms that belong to every american, every race, religion, color, creed. we have the right to freedom of speech. we have the freedom to assembly, freedom of association, free and fair elections. we have the right to very strong and powerful borders. i used to say, without borders, we don't have a country.

without borders and proper elections, we don't have a country. we have a right to religious liberty. we have the right to the full, fair, impartial rule of law. also, we can never forget that we have a right to our second amendment which is under siege. we will prevail. we will prevail. as our bill of rights says in clear and immortal words, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. in times of hardship, crisis, and turmoil, these american freedoms have always been attacked by those who wished to turn citizens into subjects and take more power for themselves. thankfully, our nation has always been blessed with americans like you. you are incredible americas in this room. patriots who know that our rights are given up if we let

somebody do their own thing. it's very simple and crassus. we live by the hand of almighty god. no government can't ever be taken away from us. more than 150 years ago, the nra was born out of the idea that ordinary citizens should be prepared to defend these incredible liberties and throughout the generations, that is exactly what americans have done. over the decades, tens of millions of people have been proud. you know this. they have been so proud. i see it all the time. very proud card-carrying members of the nra. what else is new? a lot of people out there. he has his trump card.

thank you very much. a lot of people out there with that card. it's a very important. during that time, you've been led by a legion of american legends from great general ambrose burnside's who you know to the great american hero ulysses grant. of course, that fearless patriot, the late great american icon charlton heston. great movie actor. great movie star. down throughout history. time and time again. hard-working citizens like you have answered the call to save american freedom. now together, we are going to save american freedom once again. we have no choice. right now, we don't have american freedom. we are going to preserve our heritage. we are going to defend our rights. we are going to protect our communities, schools, precious children.

we are going to secure our liberties for ourselves and for every future generation. in 2022, we are going to vote for tough on crime, pro-second amendment candidates in record numbers. get out and vote. make sure the voting is honest by the way. together, we are going to take back the house. we are going to take back the senate. in 2024, we are going to take back the great and beautiful white house that we love and cherish so much. [applause]

and then we are going to make america safer, freer, richer, stronger, prouder, greater than ever before. to the incredible patriots, people of texas, god bless you. god bless america. thank you very much. it's a great honor. [inaudible] [applause]

♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022]

government. >> president biden spoke at the u.s. naval academy graduation and commissioning ceremony today from annapolis, maryland. this is just over an hour.