'Words can have tremendous consequences': Clinton responds to Trump's 2nd Amendment controversy

Hillary Clinton responded to Donald Trump's latest controversial remarks during a Wednesday rally in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Words can have tremendous consequences," the Democratic nominee said of Trump's Tuesday comments regarding the Second Amendment. "Yesterday we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that cross the line."

She mentioned prior controversies involving his feud with the parents of a slain Muslim US soldier and his suggestion that more countries should have nuclear weapons.

"And now his casual inciting of violence," she continued. "Every single one of these incidents shows us that Donald Trump simply does not have the temperament to be president and commander in chief of the United States."

During his rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump elicited a firestorm when he described the threat he thought Hillary Clinton posed to Second Amendment rights.

"If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people - maybe there is. I don't know," Trump said.

The comment faced immediate backlash, as many accused Trump of suggesting that gun-rights advocates should use some kind of force to stop Clinton, from appointing Supreme Court justices who disagree with their views on the issue.

The Trump campaign, which blamed the controversy on "dishonest media," said the comment was meant to refer to political action. Later in the speech at the rally, Trump also said: "Speaking to the NRA folks - who are great - if you don't do the right thing, you're not going to have a Second Amendment, or you're not going to have much of it left."

Clinton's campaign released a statement Tuesday in which it condemned the idea of violence in American politics. Prominent Democrats said it was the equivalent to leveling an "assassination threat."