President Donald Trump is the candidate most likely to protect gun rights. Admittedly, that's not a high bar to clear when you're running against President Joe Biden who has done more for the anti-gun cause than any president in history. Despite that, there's a reason why he was endorsed by the NRA once again.

At least, there was before the events of Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, a community most of us had never heard of before a would-be assassin tried to kill Trump, succeeding only in giving Trump the most badass ear piercing in history.

But there are many who are using this as an opportunity to push their own anti-gun agenda. 

Nothing about that is surprising. It's to be expected, even if it is cheap and sleazy.

Yet one op-ed asks a more important question: Will Trump's views on guns change?

After narrowly dodging a bullet from an AR-15 rifle, former US President Donald Trump, now vying for the 2024 presidential bid under the Republican banner, may find himself pondering anew on his stance regarding gun rights. The attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night casts a significant shadow over the upcoming Republican National Convention, set to begin on Monday in Milwaukee. Trump has often championed the cause of citizen gun ownership, yet amid mass shootings events before, there were fleeting moments where he entertained the notion that some form of regulation might be prudent.

In contemplating gun control, Donald Trump has at times exhibited a wavering stance reminiscent of Hamlet’s famous indecisiveness in Shakespeare’s play. Like Hamlet, who grapples with conflicting emotions and moral dilemmas, Trump has faced internal and external pressures regarding gun rights and regulations. His initial calls for an assault weapons ban juxtaposed with subsequent inaction highlight a struggle between personal convictions and political pragmatism echoing Hamlet’s inner turmoil as he navigates complex decisions with profound consequences.

A melting heart after El Paso shooting…

Following the El Paso shooting, Trump once again considered advocating for gun control measures. However, his aides successfully persuaded him to abandon the idea. On August 3, 2019, two devastating shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, reignited the national debate on gun control. The incidents, which claimed a total of 32 lives and involved the use of semiautomatic rifles, prompted a rare moment of introspection from President Donald Trump. According to sources cited by the New York Times, Trump, visibly shaken by the weekend’s violence, questioned his aides at the White House the following day about potential actions regarding assault rifles. In response, his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, bluntly advised against any action, noting that attempting to implement an assault weapons ban would almost certainly result in political failure.

The aftermath of events like El Paso and Las Vegas illustrated Trump's willingness to at least consider gun control solutions in the immediate aftermath of horrific events.

As someone who has been personally touched by such events myself, I understand all too well how something like that happens.

Trump, however, ended up holding firm, though he did say he'd sign a bump stock ban and did ultimately direct the ATF to issue its ill-fated ban on them.

Yet in all of those situations, Trump was detached to some degree. Yes, people died and he likely felt awful about it, they didn't take a shot at him. Now, someone did, and they did it with the much-vilified AR-15. That may well change things, meaning the question of whether this will drive Trump to embrace gun control or not is a fair one.

It would for many people, unfortunately, and Trump has never been as vehement in his Second Amendment support as many, such as myself, might like.

However, there's another aspect of Trump's personality that might well work out in such a way to make his opposition to gun control even more vehement.

Former President Donald Trump is a contrarian. He has a history of saying and doing things that rile people up. He's the kind of guy who will dig in when under attack. Because of that, it's entirely possible that he'll look at gun control as even more of a non-starter than it might have otherwise been. 

After all, Trump doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who will just allow himself to be pushed around. Someone taking a shot at him, killing one of his supporters, and injuring two others, may not have been quite the same thing as someone trying to bully him, but I don't see him responding any differently.

So we'll have to see how Trump responds, particularly with regard to gun control, but I can see it breaking either way.