During the final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton defended her past comment that the Supreme Court was “wrong on the Second Amendment,” arguing that her comment referenced a specific provision about safe gun storage.
Moderator and Fox host Chris Wallace asked Clinton about her comment last year that the Supreme Court was “wrong on the Second Amendment” and asked her to address the Heller case in which the court struck a Washington, D.C., law banning handguns and requiring safe gun storage.
“Well, first of all, I support the Second Amendment,” Clinton replied. “I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership. It goes back to the founding of our country. But I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation. Because I support the Second Amendment doesn’t mean that I want people who shouldn’t have guns to be able to threaten you, kill you or members of your family.”
Clinton then explained to Wallace that when she said that the Supreme Court was “wrong,” she was saying “that I disagreed with the way the court applied the Second Amendment in that case.”
“Because what the District of Columbia was trying to do was to protect toddlers from guns. And they wanted people with guns to safely store them, and the court didn’t accept that reasonable regulation, but they’ve accepted many others,” she said. “So I see no conflict between saving people’s lives and defending the Second Amendment.”
Wallace then turned to Donald Trump, asking him if he believes Clinton supports the Second Amendment. In response, Trump tried to paint Clinton as “angry” and “upset.”
“The D.C. versus Heller decision was very strongly and she was extremely angry about it. I watched. She was very, very angry,” Trump said. “And Justice Scalia was so involved, and it was a well crafted decision, but Hillary was extremely upset, extremely angry, and people that believe in the Second Amendment and believe in it very strongly were very upset with what she had to say.”
In response, Clinton agreed that she was “upset.”
“Unfortunately, dozens of toddlers injure themselves, even kill people with guns because, unfortunately, not everyone who has loaded guns in their homes takes appropriate precautions,” she said.
Later, when asked by Wallace about his opposition to assault weapons bans and support for right to carry laws, Trump launched into a rant about crime in Chicago.
“Let me just tell you before we go any further, in Chicago, which has the toughest gun laws in the United States, probably you could say by far they have more gun violence than any other city. So we have the toughest laws and you have tremendous gun violence,” he said. “We are going to appoint justices. This is the best way to help the Second Amendment. We’re going to appoint justices that will feel very strongly about the Second Amendment, that will not do damage to the Second Amendment.
