In the Land of Raw Firepower, a Feeling That Trump Is Out of Ammo

[brooklynite]

Politico

As the sun dropped behind the tree line at the Knob Creek Gun Range, the crowd of 8,500 began pressing forward against the fence that separated them from the objects of their fascination. The mostly white, mostly male spectators had traveled from all over to watch what Knob Creek has become famous for, its Saturday night machine gun shoot. Since 9 a.m. the day before, the range had been a ballistic bacchanal as dozens of shooters, armed with guns that traced the entire history of automatic weaponry, raked an almost ceaseless barrage of bullets at propane tanks, busted home appliances, old jalopies, boats and SUVs. Casings cascaded like confetti. Black smoke from burning cars billowed into the clear Kentucky sky. But all this was merely a warmup exercise to that night’s spectacle, when the riddled appliances were replaced with 50-gallon drums of gasoline and diesel. When the range master yelled “Fire!” this time, the darkness was sliced by the bright lines of tracer fire. A wall of sound was followed immediately by a dozen fiery mushroom clouds. The cheers of the crowd filled the gaps between the gunfire.

In another political universe where a different GOP nominee was leading in the polls, this three-day-long salute to the glories of the Second Amendment could have been an early celebration for gun rights supporters in anticipation of the victory of President Ted Cruz or President John Kasich. But with Donald J. Trump atop the GOP ticket, that’s not the way it felt at Knob Creek. In other parts of the nation, far beyond this former Army gun range halfway between Louisville and Fort Knox, Trump was shedding supporters faster than a Gatling gun spitting shell casings. And while regulars to the machine gun shoot are still likely to vote for Trump, the ones we spoke to were not blind to his sinking poll numbers and had come to terms with the idea that the battle, still three weeks away, was already over.

“Trump can’t win,” said Steve, who wouldn’t give his last name because he didn’t want his house blown up (who he was afraid of wasn't clear). Steve, whose accent suggested a hometown somewhere in New England, said that without women, blacks and Hispanics, Trump couldn’t overcome Hillary Clinton. “And that’s game over. He lost as soon as he picked his running mate. You can’t win with two white guys anymore. If he would have picked a woman, she would have been forced to defend him.”
Steve had carefully planned his political retreat, which became evident as he laid out his strategy for defeating the Clinton administration’s anti-gun agenda: Retain control of the Senate at all costs.