Donald Trump solemnly boasted to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago press conference that when he was president he "totally protected the guns," as opposed to totally protecting the children, critics fired back.
"When a bad guy walks in with a gun, you gotta have some way of protecting yourself," he explained.
"People need guns for protection," Trump added before noting that the National Rifle Association "endorsed me very powerfully every time I ran. They gave me the strongest of endorsements."
It was a startling statement that particularly infuriated parents of children and other innocent Americans killed or maimed in shootings and their supporters.
Giffords, the anti-gun nonprofit launched after the 2011 shooting of former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords at a Tucsoon shopping mall where 6 people were killed, tweeted: "Yeah, we know."
The number of shootings of young children and teens skyrocketed 50% beginning in the Trump Administration in 2019 to 2021, and firearms became the No. 1 cause of death for Americans under the age of 18, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported.