(CNSNews.com) - "We need a Supreme Court that, in my opinion, is going to uphold the Second Amendment, and all amendments, but the Second Amendment, which is under absolute siege," Republican Donald Trump said at Wednesday's debate at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
"I feel that the justices that I am going to appoint -- and I've named 20 of them -- the justices that I'm going to appoint will be pro-life. They will have a conservative bent. They will be protecting the Second Amendment. They are great scholars in all cases, and they're people of tremendous respect. They will interpret the Constitution the way the founders wanted it interpreted. And I believe that's very, very important.
"I don't think we should have justices appointed that decide what they want to hear. It's all about the Constitution of -- of -- and so important, the Constitution the way it was meant to be. And those are the people that I will appoint."
Trump said Hillary Clinton "was extremely upset" about the Supreme Court ruling in the Heller case. (In that 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia's restrictions on gun ownership and affirmed the individual right, unconnected with a militia, to own guns.)
"I watched (Clinton)," Trump said. "I mean, she was very, very angry when upheld. And Justice Scalia was so involved. And it was a well-crafted decision. But Hillary was extremely upset, extremely angry. And people that believe in the Second Amendment and believe in it very strongly were very upset with what she had to say."
Clinton agreed that she was upset -- "because, unfortunately, dozens of toddlers injure themselves, even kill people with guns, because, unfortunately, not everyone who has loaded guns in their homes takes appropriate precautions."
(The D.C. gun law overturned by the Supreme Court also required residents to keep lawfully owned firearms unloaded and dissembled or bound by a trigger lock, and that's what Clinton was talking about.)
"But there's no doubt that I respect the Second Amendment, that I also believe there's an individual right to bear arms. That is not in conflict with sensible, commonsense regulation.
In defending her stance on guns, Clinton said that she supports the Second Amendment: "I lived in Arkansas for 18 wonderful years. I represented upstate New York. I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership. It goes back to the founding of our country.
"But I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation. Because I support the Second Amendment doesn't mean that I want people who shouldn't have guns to be able to threaten you, kill you or members of your family.
"And so when I think about what we need to do, we have 33,000 people a year who die from guns. I think we need comprehensive background checks, need to close the online loophole, close the gun show loophole. There's other matters that I think are sensible that are the kind of reforms that would make a difference that are not in any way conflicting with the Second Amendment.
"You mentioned the Heller decision. And what I was saying...was that I disagreed with the way the court applied the Second Amendment in that case, because what the District of Columbia was trying to do was to protect toddlers from guns and so they wanted people with guns to safely store them. And the court didn't accept that reasonable regulation, but they've accepted many others. So I see no conflict between saving people's lives and defending the Second Amendment."