World News ‘Don’t worry about the NRA,’ Trump tells U.S. governors
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday urged governors not to be afraid of the nation’s most powerful gun lobby as they seek to beef up school safety after last week’s deadly mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Trump has embraced the National Rifle Association’s call to safeguard schools by arming teachers, but he also has voiced support for strengthening background checks for prospective gun buyers - a proposal the politically powerful NRA has traditionally resisted.
“Don’t worry about the NRA. They’re on our side,” Trump told more than 35 governors, including Rick Scott of Florida, during a White House meeting. “If they’re not with you, we have to fight them every once in awhile. That’s OK. They’re doing what they think is right.”
The long-simmering national debate between proponents of gun rights and advocates of firearms controls was reignited by the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, an affluent suburb of Fort Lauderdale.
The 14 students and three adult educators killed were shot with a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault weapon, which authorities say was purchased legally last year by the accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, when he was 18 years old.
Cruz, now 19, a former Stoneman Douglas student who authorities say had a history of run-ins with the law and was expelled from school for disciplinary problems, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
Trump, a Republican who backed gun rights during and since his 2016 presidential campaign, has been under pressure to show he is responding without alienating Republicans who oppose firearms restrictions. He plans to meet with lawmakers from both parties to discuss possible legislation on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.
Trump had last week said he wanted to raise the legal minimum age for buying an assault rifle to 21. But on Monday - a day after he had lunch with three senior NRA officials - he failed to mention the idea in the school safety plans he discussed with governors.
The NRA has opposed higher minimum ages for purchasing guns. The White House said on Monday that Trump was still looking at details of such a measure. The NRA could not be reached for immediate comment.
Trump did express support for bolstering the nation’s system of background checks for gun buyers to better keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally disturbed.
That could be an uphill battle, particularly heading into congressional elections in November.
Past bipartisan pushes to fix gaps in the background check system after other tragic mass shootings have floundered in the U.S. Congress, and some Republican senators have already expressed concerns about renewed efforts.
An attempt by Senate leadership on Monday to quickly consider a bill and bypass time-consuming procedural steps was blocked by Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah.
Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana told reporters that he wants to ensure people flagged as ineligible to buy guns have the right to appeal. South Africa’s new president Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister yesterday, two years after Nene’s sacking from the same role began the ruling party revolt that eventually ousted former leader Jacob Zuma.
Yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle also saw Ramaphosa add new faces and remove some ministers allied to Zuma, who was ordered by his own African National Congress party to step down two weeks ago.
His nine years as president were marked by multiple corruption allegations, economic mismanagement and disputed appointments. Zuma denies any wrongdoing.
Ramaphosa, 65, hailed a “new dawn” after his inauguration and has promised to fight the corruption corroding Africa’s most industrialised economy.
Nene sought to keep a tight rein on spending during his previous stint as finance minister, before being fired by Zuma in December 2015 and replaced with unknown parliamentary backbencher Des van Rooyen. Four days later, Zuma was forced to sack van Rooyen and reappoint a previous finance minister, technocrat Pravin Gordhan, after the rand collapsed in value.
Gordhan, who was fired by Zuma last March, was also reappointed to the cabinet. He was handed the key public enterprises department, which oversees around 300 state-owned firms, including loss-making South African Airways and cash-strapped power utility Eskom.
A popular figure with investors, Gordhan served as Minister of Finance from 2009 until 2014 and again from 2015 until 2017.
“We’re trying to work on language to say that if they’re going to send your name in, you’ve got to be notified first,” said Kennedy, noting people with common names could face problems.
Trump told governors that he believes arming trained teachers is the most cost-effective way to protect students and deter would-be shooters. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, told Trump that teachers in his state do not want to carry weapons.
“I have listened to the first-grade teachers who don’t want to be pistolpacking first-grade teachers,” Inslee said.
But Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said more than 100 school districts in his state have trained teachers and other staff to carry a weapon and respond to attacks.
“Some school districts, they promote it,” Abbott said. “They will have signs out front, a warning sign, ‘Be aware there are armed personnel on campus.’”