NRA targets Trump’s gun ban plan

Lobby opposes firearm ownership changes following school massacre

The National Rifle Association pushed back on Sunday against modest proposals by President Donald Trump and other Republicans to change US gun laws after a school shooting in Florida that killed 17 students and staff.

The powerful gun lobby group does not support Trump’s proposals to raise the age limit for buying certain types of guns and to ban bump stocks that enable semi-automatic rifles to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute, a spokesperson said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The NRA doesn’t back any ban,” Dana Loesch said.

Trump was endorsed by the NRA in his 2016 presidential election campaign and often trumpets his support for Americans’ constitutional right to own guns.

But the February 14 massacre at a Florida high school has mobilized high school students to push for restrictions on gun sales, spurred several companies to sever ties with the NRA and energized gun-control activists.

As November congressional elections draw closer, Trump and Republicans are under pressure to show they are responding to concerns about school safety without angering supporters who oppose gun control.

Since the Florida shooting, Trump has declared support for raising the age limit to 21 from 18 for buying rifles. The 19-yearold shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, had bought his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle legally.

“That’s what the NRA came out and said, that’s correct,” Loesch said when pressed on whether the group opposes raising the minimum age.

Trump also has asked the Justice Department to develop a regulation that would effectively ban the sale of bump stocks, an accessory used last year by a shooter who killed 58 people at a Las Vegas outdoor concert.

Trump has also said he supports legislation to tighten background checks for gun buyers, although he has not provided specific details.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey, a sponsor of a bill that would require background checks for weapons sold at gun shows and on the internet, said Trump’s support could help advance proposals that floundered in years passed.

“Our president can play a huge and in fact probably decisive role in this. So I intend to give this another shot,” Toomey said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Legislation to close background checks loopholes failed to clear the 60-vote threshold in the US Senate after a shooter killed 26 children and teachers in 2012 at an elementary school in Newtown,

Connecticut.