President Donald Trump has slapped anti-gunners with the wet towel of common sense, and it is clear from their reaction that they don’t like it.

Responding to questions about the tragic double shooting at Florida State University, which left two people dead and six others injured, the president told reporters, “These things are terrible, but the gun doesn’t do the shooting — the people do.”

CBS News noted another Trump reaction, “As far as legislation is concerned, this has been going on for a long time. I have an obligation to protect the Second Amendment. I ran on the Second Amendment, among many other things, and I will always protect the Second Amendment.”

Does this mean Trump will henceforth be recognized as the champion of Second Amendment rights? Probably not, since someone, somewhere will undoubtedly complain about something. But it does put him several notches higher than many, if not most, of his predecessors.

Writing at MSNBC, Steve Benen, producer for the Rachel Maddow Show, argued, “I suppose there’s a degree of truth to that — guns don’t pull their own triggers — but it’s also true that killers don’t throw their bullets at their victims. Rather, they use weapons, and those weapons can be regulated by the state.”

This may be one of those, “Well, we’ll see about that” moments, now that Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced the creation of a “Second Amendment Task Force” which will “combine department-wide policy and litigation resources to advance President Trump’s pro-gun agenda and protect gun owners from overreach.”

In her now-famous memorandum to all DOJ employees two weeks ago, AG Bondi stated, “For too long, the Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right. No more… President Trump has made protecting the Second Amendment rights a priority for this administration.”

That said, the president’s reaction to the FSU shooting, which was allegedly committed by Phoenix Ikner, stepson of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy, using one of her firearms. That gun was recovered at the scene, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Ikner is now in custody, having been shot during the incident.

Trump’s comments on the shooting are not unlike something one might hear from any Second Amendment activist. The alleged shooter is the only person responsible for the crime, for which there is presently no known motive. From Trump’s perspective, there is no reason to penalize every Florida gun owner—or all gun owners in the nation—for the murderous act.

Producer Benen notes in his essay, “in the recent past, Trump had those same responsibilities (to protect the Second Amendment), and it didn’t stop him from endorsing measures that might’ve saved lives. Now, evidently, he no longer wants to bother with the effort.”

Perhaps it was getting shot by a lone sniper in Pennsylvania, and having a second would-be assassin thwarted in Florida, which has caused Trump to re-think some of his previous efforts. It wasn’t a whole nation of armed citizens who did that, but just a couple of nuts.

But according to BuzzFeed, the left is going nuts over Trump’s observation, and there are ample examples of messages posted on “X” to prove it. Remarks such as, “Thank goodness they only shot up a bunch of college kids and no Teslas were hurt.”

Another person wrote, “Trump reacts to a campus shooting like it’s a rain delay at a golf tournament.”

One person identified as “Brandon” wrote in reaction to a clip of Trump speaking about the tragedy in the Oval Office stated, “not even thoughts and prayers anymore, just ‘go f— yourself.’” 

And there was this remark from David Hogg, formerly known as a “survivor” of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, now vice chair of the Democratic National Committee: “Moved on from thoughts and prayers to simply just saying I don’t care. Absolutely disgusting.”

Trump’s reaction is definitely not what the establishment media and the gun prohibition lobby have come to expect from a president, especially his most recent predecessor and former President Barack Obama. Had it been Joe Biden in the White House—or Kamala Harris—one would already see an added push for more gun restrictions, which would not likely have prevented the FSU shooting, had they been in place.

Maybe Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil had the proper reaction when he told reporters about his deputy’s gun being used: “Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons found at the scene. We are continuing our investigation as to how that weapon was used and what other weapons perhaps he may have had access to.”

How that investigation will unfold, and what conclusions it may reach, remains to be seen.

About Dave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.