U.S. President Donald Trump tackled a range of issues –both about guns and not – as he spoke at an NRA convention on Friday afternoon.
Many were wondering how his speech would go after meeting with the victims of the Parkland shooting in which 17 people died at a high school.
After the attack, Trump met with survivors and appeared to criticize the NRA, saying he would stand up to the gun lobby.
But in his speech on Friday, Trump pandered to the crowd, hitting many of the lobby’s main talking points, along with a few others.
Here are the highlights of his speech:
Parkland shooting and arming teachers
Trump first said that the whole nation mourns for the victims of the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February.
He repeated his call to arm teachers and to have more security at high schools, saying gun-free zones invite people to attack them.
“We strongly believe in allowing highly-trained teachers to carry concealed weapons,” he said.
“We support the 2nd amendment not only because we believe in freedom but because we trust in everyday talented wonderful people — they love our students.”
While saying that “nothing was more important than protecting innocent lives,” he also touted the NRA executives he met on Friday.
‘Knives, knives, knives’
While talking about London’s increase in knife attacks, Trump made a stabbing motion with his hands.
“I recently read a story about London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws,” he said. “Yes that’s right, they don’t have guns, they have knives.”
He said a “once very prestigious hospital” is now like a military hospital in a war zone, and described it as having “blood all over the floors.”
“Knives, knives, knives,” he said, while mimicking stabbing people.
According to British media, there has been an increase in stabbings in the recent past. But as the Independent points out, the murder rate for 2017 in London is half as much as New York’s murder rate, a city of about the same size.
Joke about banning vans and cars
Trump also tackled the issue of van attacks, like the one that took place in Toronto just two weeks earlier.
He sarcastically suggested banning automobiles, parodying people who want to ban guns.
“It seems that if we’re going to outlaw guns like so many people want to do… you know what I’m going to say, we are going to have to outlaw immediately all vans and all trucks, which are now the new form of death for the maniac terrorists, right?” Trump said to a chorus of cheers.
“So let’s ban immediately all trucks, all vans, maybe all cars. How about cars? Let’s not sell any more cars.”
2015 Paris attacks
Trump also suggested that the terrorist attack at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris could have been stopped quicker – if the citizens had been armed with guns.
“Paris, France, has the toughest gun laws in the world,” Trump began.
The attack saw 130 people killed and more than 400 injured when an Islamic State cell stormed the concert hall and restaurants nearby.
“They took their time and gunned them down one by one. Boom. Come over here. Boom. Come over here. Boom,” Trump said, while making a finger-gun with his hand.
“But if one employee or just one patron had a gun, or if one person in this room had been there with a gun aimed at the opposite direction, the terrorists would have fled or been shot and it would have been a whole different story.”
Kanye West
Trump also thanked rapper Kanye West for bringing up his poll numbers with African-American voters.
Kayne recently brought up Donald Trump on his Twitter feed, saying he “loves” him and that they are both “dragon energy.”
“By the way, Kanye West must have some power because, as you probably saw, I doubled my African-American poll numbers,” Trump said. “I went from 11 to 22 in one week. Thank you, Kanye.”
Russia investigation
Reiterating his comments about the investigation into Russian meddling and his 2016 campaign, Trump also mentioned recent events in which a judge questioned indictments of former campaign staff.
Earlier in the day, Judge T.S. Ellis said he didn’t see what Paul Manafort’s indictments had to do with the special counsel investigation that Robert Mueller is running. Mueller is the one who brought charges on Manafort.
Trump capitalized on these comments, echoing his “witch hunt” tweets that he’s said for months.
“Manafort was there for a short while but he’s a good person, I really believe he’s a good person,” Trump said.
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