A Gunman Shot at Trump With an AR-15. RNC Visitors Can Win a Free One

Just days after Donald Trump was shot at with an AR-15 in Pennsylvania, visitors to his 2024 nominating convention can enter to win a free, yes, AR-15.

The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is a sprawling affair. Its fenced security zone encompasses not only Fiserv Forum, home to the NBA’s Bucks and the main convention stage, but several blocks passing pubs and a designated “media row” down to the Baird expo center. An outdoor space here has been designated as “ConventionFest,” where delegates can grab a beer and cheese curds; visit vendor booths; check out a four piece polka band; or enter to win a Daniel Defense assault rifle.

The giveaway is sponsored by an RNC vendor called the U.S. Concealed Carry Association. The gun group, founded in 2003, is based in Wisconsin and claims a membership of 800,000. USCCA pitches itself as a concealed carry advocacy group, encouraging self-defense with firearms. The gun violence publication The Trace has highlighted USCCA as one of many groups “scrambling to fill the NRA’s void,” with that beleaguered gun rights group raising less money than in years past.

USCCA’s membership pitch is based around obtaining insurance, through the group, meant for anyone who might use a gun to kill in self defense. A membership brochure handed out at the booth highlights the case of “Brian” who was “forced to shoot” an intruder but soon found himself “charged with murder” — and how USCCA membership and insurance saved the day, by deploying an attorney and taking care of the legal fees needed to clear Brian’s name. The same “peace of mind” is pitched to would-be members, nay “responsibly armed Americans,” for as low as $29 a month. 

To get MAGA conventioneers extra interested in its membership, the group is promoting a giveaway for an AR-15 manufactured by Daniel Defense. (The exact model would be tailored to what’s legal in the state of the winner.) Daniel Defense rifles are infamous for not being used in self-defense scenarios. The Uvalde school shooter used one, and several Daniel Defense rifles were found in the stockpile of the Las Vegas shooter who murdered dozens at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, shooting down from a hotel room. 

An AR-15 was also used in the assassination attempt against Trump at the rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. The exact model used by the gunman has not been made public.

The QR code on the giveaway brochure takes visitors to a web page tailored to “RNC Convention Attendees.” Entering your email and phone number enters you into the gun giveaway — and also offers a free pamphlet with a “life saving Situational Awareness Guide… to keep your family safe.”

Rolling Stone asked a representative at the booth whether anyone was “touchy” about them giving away the same kind of weapon that was used to shoot at Trump over the weekend. The spokesperson responded that “some people” have been surprised, but defended the AR-15 as a “tool.” The person who shot at Trump, she said, “chose to use it for something really terrible.” But she defended the assault rifle as “a tool to defend ourselves,” calling it “one of the most effective and important tools that we have.”

In recent years USCCA has also launched an “action fund” — read: dark money group — that fights against gun control. The group’s legislative priorities are to fight a new assault weapons ban and to oppose a bill seeking to raise the age of purchase for assault weapons to 21. The group also promotes concealed carry “reciprocity,” seeking to ensure that gun owners who can carry a hidden weapon in their home state can also legally pack heat when they travel to other states that might have different permitting standards.

USCCA is not just a vendor at the RNC. It’s also putting on an official event on Tuesday at one of the convention hotels, titled “Defend and Protect: The Critical Role of Safety, Self-Defense & Standing Up for Our Constitutional Rights in the 2024 Election.” The RNC calendar billing says it will feature appearances by “Trump campaign Senior Advisor Chris LaCivita” as well as “key pro 2A lawmakers.”

The presence of a booth boosting AR-15 ownership, even in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump, underscores how irretrievably the modern GOP is joined at the hip with gun interests. 

Indeed, Trump’s having been shot at, and survived — by what Trump himself is touting as a “pretty tough gun” — appears to only be tightening this association. A couple booths down, the company Patriot Mobile, a cell phone service marketed to Christian conservatives, was attracting visitors with a cardboard cutout of “Trumpbo.” The man-sized cutout featured an AK-47 toting Rambo body, superimposed with the 45th president’s head. 

The Patriot Mobile vendor — a gentleman in mirrored sunglasses and an unruly ZZ Top beard — said he’d been using the prop for years. But after this weekend’s shooting, he had doctored the cutout with a red marker — to memorialize Trump’s bloodied ear.