Seize guns first, ask questions later, demands Trump
President criticised by NRA over his call for changes to firearms laws after Florida school shooting
DONALD TRUMP set himself on a collision course with the National Rifle Association as America’s biggest gun lobby accused him of wanting to “punish” innocent gun owners and strip them of their constitutional rights.
The US president, who was enthusiastically endorsed by the NRA in the 2016 election, called yesterday for substantial changes to gun laws in the wake of last month’s school shooting in Florida, which cost 17 lives.
Perhaps the most unexpected suggestion from Mr Trump was that police should be able to confiscate people’s firearms without a court order, to prevent potential tragedies.
At an hour-long televised meeting with Democrat and Republican senators, he said: “I like taking the guns early. Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
Addressing fellow Republicans in the room, he added: “Some of you are petrified of the NRA. You can’t be petrified. They have great power over you people … they have less power over me.” He asked Pat Toomey, a Republican senator who has proposed a modest tightening of background checks, why he was not advocating raising the minimum age for buying semi-automatic weapons. “You know why,” Mr Trump added. “Because you’re afraid of the NRA.”
Mr Trump’s comments came as Walmart, America’s biggest gun seller, announced it was raising the minimum age for buying weapons and ammunition from 18 to 21.
The NRA, which backed Mr Trump with $30million (£22million) in 2016 responded with a blistering attack, accusing him of breaching the founding principles of the United States.
Dana Loesch, the spokesman for the NRA, said: “I thought the meeting made for really good TV but really bad policy. We’re talking about punishing innocent Americans, and stripping from them their constitutional rights without due process.”
During the meeting some Republican senators sat stony-faced as Mr Trump at times parted ways dramatically with NRA policy, including on the extent of background checks, raising the age for buying semi-automatics from 18 to 21, and even not ruling out a ban on assault weapons.
He also refused to support the NRA’S campaign for a new law allowing gun owners with a “concealed carry” licence in one state to have that extended to all states. Mr Trump said such a law would “never pass”.
The NRA was understood to be in contact with Republican members of Congress, shoring up support for their agenda, in the wake of Mr Trump’s comments. The president appeared to have taken notice of polls showing a surge in support for tighter gun control after the Florida shooting, with 68 per cent in favour.
With Dianne Feinstein, the Democrat senator and anti-assault weapon campaigner, sitting next to him, Mr Trump said: “It’s time that a president stepped up.”
The president said he had personally told the NRA leadership: “We’re going to stop this nonsense. It’s time.”
Mr Trump also reiterated that he wants to have armed teachers in schools, with perhaps 20 per cent of them carrying concealed weapons. Meanwhile, it emerged that a protest rally planned by survivors of the Florida shooting cannot take place on the National Mall in Washington on March
24. A permit for the Mall had already been obtained by a different group of students filming a talent show so the organisers will have to find another venue in the US capital.
♦ Mr Trump has suggested that he wants to see the death penalty for drug dealers. The president said that some other countries use the “ultimate penalty” for such people and it appeared to be effective in reducing the scourge of drugs. He was speaking at an “Opioid Summit” at the White House, aimed at tackling America’s opioid crisis.