Latrobe: trip to the town that supports Trump and defends the use of guns

The small town of Latrobe, in Pennsylvania, United States, where around 8 thousand people live, It is the stereotype of Donald Trump’s America: hunters, whites -not Latinos-, without a university diploma and middle income. There, four years ago, the former president won with more than 60% of the votes. They say they are the land of the banana split, stating that that dessert was born there, but it is also the town of weapons.

Mark Boerio is a proud and pure Trumpist. He has a weapons store and his shelf is full of submachine guns, pistols of all models, shotguns and rifles, among other weapons. At the entrance to his business it is noted that only Donald Trump is supported there.

This man has been selling weapons for 34 years and says that he does not want anyone to come and restrict his right to carry them, much less if it is a politician in Washington, emphasizing that “I don’t have the secret service or these other things to protect me, so I “I am the one who can protect my family and I believe that everyone should have the same right.”

Among the ammunition and weapons is the message “fight, fight, fight”, which has become former President Trump’s campaign slogan.whom this citizen describes as “a fighter and is fighting for us.”

Mark took the Noticias Caracol journalist live for a weapons test. The space is the basement of the store, arranged as a polygon. After filling out a form and protecting your ears with earplugs and your eyes with special glasses, the test begins with a small gun, which has eight bullets in total, and then with a rifle.

With more than 430 shootings in the United States so far in 2024, Mark maintains that the problem is not guns. “What you have to be sure of is that only law-abiding citizens can have guns.”, he maintains, and states that Pennsylvania laws are not so flexible. He attests that everyone who buys guns from him does so responsibly and must “go through a complete background check conducted by both the state and federal governments, so when I sell a gun to someone, they are not going to receive a weapon unless it passes all the controls.”

Furthermore, he defends his vote for Trump not only because he believes that he is going to defend the second amendment, which allows the carrying of weapons, but because he points out that the border is a disaster, the economy has been in decline under the Democrats and the businessman is who can solve the problems that afflict the country.