Trump’s assurances to gun lobby as talk grows of new controls
DONALD Trump has said that he has reassured the National Rifle Association that its “strong views” on the right to bear arms will not be ignored in Washington’s response to recent mass shootings.
The US President said he is talking to the NRA and others to make sure their “very strong views can be fully represented and respected”.
“I am the biggest Second Amendment person there is, but we all must work together for the good and safety of our Country,” Trump tweeted. “Common sense things can be done that are good for everyone!”
The NRA is uncompromising on gun control. Chief executive Wayne LaPierre said in a rare public statement on Thursday that some federal gun control proposals “would make millions of law-abiding Americans less safe and less able to defend themselves and their loved ones”.
Mr Trump did not say specifically how the NRA’s position could be reconciled with
Serious talks: Donald Trump
the push for new gun control measures. He said leaders in the House and Senate are having “serious discussions” about background checks for buying guns, and repeated his frequent statement that guns should not be “placed in the hands of mentally ill or deranged people”.
On Thursday Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he wanted to consider background checks and other action, setting up a potentially pivotal moment when legislators return in the autumn.
The Republican will not call senators back to work early, as some had demanded, but he told a Kentucky radio station that Mr Trump called him on Thursday morning and they talked about several ideas. The President, he said, is “anxious to get an outcome and so am I”.
Republicans have long opposed expanding background checks — a Bill passed by the Democratic-led House is stalled in Mr McConnell’s Senate — but they face new pressure to do something after the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 people dead.
“What we can’t do is fail to pass something,” Mr McConnell said. “What I want to see here is an outcome.”
He said he and Mr Trump discussed background checks and “red flag” laws that allow authorities to seize firearms from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.
Mr Trump has declared an interest in federal background checks before, only to drop the issue later, as in his reversal on gun proposals after the 2018 high school shooting at Parkland, Florida.