Video appearing to show former President Donald Trump buy a firearm during a South Carolina campaign stop raised questions about the legality of the purchase Monday afternoon.
Trump, who is running in the Republican presidential primary, has been indicted in four separate criminal cases—two federal cases, related to alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence, a New York case related to an alleged hush money payment made during his 2016 campaign and a Georgia case surrounding the 2020 election. Trump maintains his innocence in each case, accusing prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes.
The former president, a supporter of gun rights, stopped by a gun shop in Summerville, South Carolina, a critical early-voting state in the primary, on Monday just hours before delivering remarks at a campaign rally.
Video posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, showed Trump appear to purchase a firearm. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote in a now-deleted post that Trump purchased the firearm but told Newsweek he did not purchase the gun. He wrote in a statement: "President Trump did not purchase or take possession of the firearm. He simply indicated that he wanted one."
"I want to buy one," Trump said in the video after a salesman showed off a Glock, describing it as a "great seller."
The video quickly went viral on social media, with many people questioning whether the purchase was legal due to his indictments. Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email.
"Donald Trump is under felony criminal indictment and thus cannot legally own or purchase a gun," posted political commentator and Trump critic Brian Tyler Cohen.
Federal law does prohibit most individuals indicted on felony charges from purchasing a firearm, but the constitutionality of that law remains in question following a court ruling against it last year.
That law was overturned by U.S. District Judge David Counts, a Trump-appointed judge in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, in September 2022. In his ruling, Counts determined that a landmark Supreme Court decision from earlier that year means that they can no longer "balance away a constitutional right" in the case of Jose Gomez Quiroz, a man who was charged under the ban, according to Reuters.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek on Monday that the ruling may not be binding in South Carolina but is "ripe" for Supreme Court review.
"A district judge's ruling in Texas won't be binding in South Carolina, both because it's not an appellate court and not in the same circuit. But this is the type of case that may end up in the Supreme Court. The Department of Justice has said it will appeal, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas, is Second Amendment friendly," he said.
He continued: "It recently held that a federal statute prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional. That ruling by a conservative court may ironically help Hunter Biden in his addict-in-possession case. Decisions like these on constitutional grounds which result in a circuit split and inconsistencies are ripe for Supreme Court review, so this is the type of decision that may not be binding now, but will be if the Justices affirm."
The Fifth Circuit of Appeals includes Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana and is viewed as the most conservative circuits in the country. South Carolina is in the fourth appeals circuit, which also includes North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.
Update 09/26/23 11:56 a.m. ET: This article was updated to accurately reflect a quote.
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