Donald Trump accuses Hillary Clinton of wanting to end Americans' right to guns as he seals NRA endorsement
The controversial billionaire is expected to reinforce his support for
the right to bear arms in the US at the NRA's annual conference in
Louisville, Kentucky
Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of wanting to abolish Americans'
Second Amendment right to bear arms, cherished by gun-loving
Republicans.
The US presidential candidate made the claims as he
addressed the powerful National Rifle Association, which has more than
4million members and is a strident voice against gun control.
Trump,
who will almost certainly be the Republican presidential nominee and
tonight received the NRA's endorsement for the campaign, assured gun
owners he would protect their constitutional right to bear arms and
eliminate gun-free zones if elected.
The 69-year-old, who is
trying to unite the Republican Party behind him after a brutal primary
battle, accused Clinton of wanting to end the 2nd Amendment, which says
in part that the people's right to keep and bear arms "shall not be
infringed".
"Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment, not change it; she wants to abolish it," Trump said.
Clinton
campaign senior policy adviser Maya Harris said Trump is peddling
falsehoods and denounced "Donald Trump's conspiracy theories".
She
said Clinton believes there are "common-sense steps we can take at the
federal level to keep guns out of the hands of criminals" while
protecting the Second Amendment.
Trump told the NRA he would
eliminate gun-free zones imposed in some areas, noting that the 2015
shooting deaths of four U.S. Marines at an armed forces recruiting
centre in Chattanooga, Tennessee, took place in a gun-free zone.
"The
Second Amendment is on the ballot in November," he said. "The only way
to save our Second Amendment is to vote for a person you know: Donald
Trump."
The NRA's convention took place on the same day that a man brandished a gun at a checkpoint near the White House in Washington and was shot and wounded by a law enforcement officer.
Trump,
picked up the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, a
politically powerful lobbying group which claims more than 4 million
members.
Trump's remarks at the NRA's national convention in
Louisville, Kentucky, were not a surprise, but they could solidify his
status among conservatives who see protecting the U.S. Constitution's
Second Amendment as a top priority.
Clinton, who is close to
clinching the Democratic Party's nomination for the Nov. 8 election, has
vowed to take on the gun lobby and expand gun control measures to
include comprehensive background checks for gun buyers, including at
open-air gun-shows and online.
The New York billionaire's NRA speech was another step in his
drive to make more conservatives comfortable with his candidacy.
Earlier this week, he released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court
nominees who are conservative jurists, a step well-received on the right.
Many
conservatives, who had backed other Republican candidates in the 2016
race, worry that Trump is a closet liberal on many issues.
But
Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative
Action, said it was time for them to get over their qualms about the
69-year-old candidate.
"If your preferred candidate is out of
the race, it's time to get over it," Cox told the NRA audience. "Are
there valid arguments in favor of some over others? Sure. Will any of it
matter if Hillary wins in November? Not one bit."
In another
step toward trying to unify the party, Cox has invited members of
Congress to a "small roundtable discussion" with one of Trump's sons,
Donald Trump Jr., on Wednesday at the Capitol Hill Club near the U.S.
Capitol, a copy of the invitation said.
The end of anonymity as we know it? App allows people to find ANYONE'S social media profile just by taking their photo
FindFace compares photos to pictures on social network Vkontakte
Works out identities with 70 per cent reliability, according to the founders
Gives most likely match to the face, as well as 10 similar people
Can be used for dating and solving crimes using CCTV footage
Published:
15:02 GMT, 17 May 2016
| Updated:
18:29 GMT, 17 May 2016
Imagine a world in which you could not walk past someone on the street without them being able to identify you.
This is already a reality for some people, thanks to a new website designed in Russia.
'FindFace'
uses a new algorithm to identify anyone from their profile picture
using only a photograph, with 70 per cent accuracy.
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'FindFace' uses a new algorithm to
identify anyone from their profile picture using only a photograph, with
70 per cent accuracy. The website works by comparing photographs to
profile pictures on Vkontakte - a social network popular in Russia and
the former Soviet Union with more than 200 million accounts
WHAT IS FINDFACE?
The
website works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte
- a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union with
more than 200 million accounts.
Unlike other face recognition technology, the FindFace algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets.
'With
this algorithm, you can search through a billion photographs in less
than a second from a normal computer,' co-founder Mr Kabakov told The Guardian.
The
website works by comparing photographs to profile pictures on Vkontakte
- a social network popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union with
more than 200 million accounts.
Unlike other face recognition technology, the FindFace algorithm allows quick searches in big data sets.
According
to the company website, its primary use is for dating. The idea is a
user would see someone they like, photograph them, find their identity,
and then send them a friend request.
The algorithm also looks for similar people, and gives a list of 10 more people for you to approach.
In
the two months since it launched, FindFace has gained 500,000 users and
processed nearly 3 million searches, according to its Russian founders
Artem Kukharenko and Alexander Kabakov.
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'With
this algorithm, you can search through a billion photographs in less
than a second from a normal computer,' Mr Kabakov told The Guardian.
The website has already been used to solve crime, according to Russian website Geek Times.
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If someone takes a photograph of you,
they might be using it to find out who you are. Unlike other face
recognition technology, the FindFace algorithm allows quick searches in
big data sets
+4
In the two months since it launched,
Findface has gained 500,000 users and processed nearly 3 million
searches, according to its Russian founders Artem Kukharenko and
Alexander Kabakov
In
April, CCTV footage captured two people setting fire to a building in
St Petersburg. After a complaint was posted online, some 'internet
activists' used FindFace to detect the offenders.
FINDFACE FIGHTING CRIME?
In
April, CCTV footage captured two people setting fire to a building in
St Petersburg. After a complaint was posted online, some 'internet
activists' used FindFace to detect the offenders.
The
startup is in the final stages of signing a contract with Moscow city
government to work with the city's network of 150,000 CCTV cameras.
The
pair also claimed to have been contacted by police in Russian regions,
saying they started loading suspect or witness photographs into FindFace
and came up with results.
The
app has also been used by a St Petersburg photographer to snap and
identify people on the city's metro, as well as by online vigilantes to
uncover the social media profiles of female porn actors and harass them.
The
technology can work with any photographic database, though it currently
cannot use Facebook, because even the public photographs are stored in a
way that is harder to access than Vkontakte, the app's creators told
the Guardian.
The
startup is in the final stages of signing a contract with Moscow city
government to work with the city's network of 150,000 CCTV cameras.
The
pair also claimed to have been contacted by police in Russian regions,
saying they started loading suspect or witness photographs into FindFace
and came up with results.
'It's nuts: there were cases that had seen no movement for years, and now they are being solved,' said Mr Kabakov.
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According to the company website, its
primary use is for dating. The idea is a user would see someone they
like, photograph them, find their identity, and then send them a friend
request. The algorithm also looks for similar people, and gives a list
of 10 more people for you to approach
