Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Donald Trump avoids gun debate in explicitly religious speech about Las Vegas shooting

Donald Trump’s statement to the nation about Las Vegas was platitudinous. Speeches by leaders in the wake of such horrors tend to be. But it wasn’t bad. He did the necessary: he called the slaughter ‘pure evil’, he thanked the Las Vegas police and protection services for their professionalism, he offered comfort and condolences to the families of the victims, and he called for America to unite in grief. ‘In moments of tragedy and horror America comes together as one, and it always has,’ he said. ‘It is our love that defines us today, and always will, forever.’ Schmaltzy stuff, but exactly what America wanted to hear. His speech was explicitly Christian, too, in a way that President Obama’s responses to mass shootings tended to avoid. He invoked Scripture to say that

‘God lives in the hearts of those who grieve. Though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens it is our love that defines us today.

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