J.D. Vance, Donald Trump, Jr., and other campaign surrogates made their pitch to Arizona voters on Saturday, with a nod towards the Second Amendment in their choice of venue. The campaign event was hosted by Dillon Precision, a Scottsdale-based company that specializes on reloading supplies and equipment. 

While the right to keep and bear arms wasn’t the main focus of Vance’s remarks, the setting was a reminder of the stark contrast between the Trump and Harris campaigns when it comes to the Second Amendment. Harris has sought to distance herself from her past support for handgun bans, mandatory “buybacks” of so-called assault weapons, and a collective rights interpretation of the Second Amendment’s texts, while downplaying her current support for an “assault weapons” ban as well. 

Unlike Harris, Trump has pledged to protect the Second Amendment without offering any “buts” or other caveats. Harris claims to be a gun owner and Second Amendment supporter, but it’s hard to imagine her hosting a campaign rally at a gun shop, range, or reloading retailer, as Vance did this past weekend. 

Much of Vance’s half-hour-long speech in Scottsdale focused on tying Americans’ economic woes to illegal immigration.

“The costs of this border crisis to the state of Arizona are unbelievable,” Vance said.

When it comes to housing, Vance said, “No matter how many homes we build, if we have a president like Kamala Harris, who gives American homes to illegal aliens instead of American citizens, we are never going to make the American Dream of homeownership affordable.”

Donald Trump, Jr., meanwhile, excoriated the media and Democrats for grossly misrepresenting Trump’s comment about “war hawk” Liz Cheney last week. Though it was pretty clear that Trump wasn’t calling for violence against the former Wyoming congresswoman who’s become a campaign surrogate for Harris, and was instead arguing that Cheney is all-in on using military force even though she won’t be serving on the front lines, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced on Friday she was opening up an investigation into Trump’s comments and treating them as a threat against Cheney. 

Trump Jr. pointed to the investigation as a sign that Democrats and the media have misinterpreted or overreacted to his father’s remarks.

“It’s, at this point, full-on propaganda,” he said. “You have the power to change all of that.”

Vance also pushed back on Harris’ description of Trump as a “fascist.”

“We are not bad people for loving this country enough to think that Kamala Harris ought to do a better job,” he said.

The state’s gun owners are likely to be a key voting bloc for Trump, who narrowly lost Arizona four years ago by about 11,000 votes statewide. Arizona is yet again one of the crucial swing states that’s likely to decide the election, and the Trump/Vance campaign seems to be in a strong position there heading into Election Day. I don’t put much stock in any individual polls, but the trend in pre-election surveys shows a small but consistent lead for Trump, with the RealClearPolitics polling average showing Trump ahead of Harris by about 2 1/2 points in the state.