Gun comments by Trump open Republican rift

Senate’s McConnell shelves debate after bills hit snags

WASHINGTON — Despite bipartisan efforts, action on gun legislation skidded to a halt Thursday in Congress as many Republicans were left scrambling to figure out what to do after President Donald Trump shifted on gun policy.

Republicans squirmed over Trump’s call Wednesday for stricter gun laws after the Feb. 14 attack on a Florida high school, while Democrats seized on the opening to reach beyond a modest measure gaining traction in Congress. They unveiled a more ambitious priority list that included expanded background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons.

Without a clear path forward for any legislation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shelved the gun debate, for now, saying the Senate would turn next week to other measures. McConnell had been preparing to push ahead with a bipartisan proposal from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., but even that measure faced some GOP opposition.

“I’m hoping there’s a way forward,” he told reporters as lawmakers left Washington.

Congress is under pressure to act after the shooting last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High

School in Parkland left 17 people dead. But after Trump’s pronouncements this week, the Cornyn-Murphy measure hardly mattered. Trump panned the bipartisan bill, which would have improved the background system already in place, as little more than a building block for the “beautiful” and “comprehensive” legislation he envisioned would protect Americans from mass shootings.

“Many ideas, some good & some not so good,” Trump tweeted Thursday, singling out background checks. “After many years, a bill should emerge.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats were “stunned and surprised — many of us pleasantly — by what we saw” from Trump at the Wednesday meeting, which stretched an hour and was aired live on television.

In the meeting, Trump suggested — but did not declare — his support for a more sweeping background-check bill that would require review of firearm purchases online and at gun shows.

That measure, from Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has found new momentum since it was first introduced after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that left 20 children dead.

The president reached out to Toomey on Thursday, after the senator endured the brunt of Trump’s public criticism of lawmakers as “afraid” of the National Rifle Association, and encouraged him to pursue the bill.

The senator told Trump that his backing would be needed to build support. “He wants to be helpful,” Toomey said.

In the shifting debate, the president convened yet another meeting on school safety, this time with school shooting survivors and family members of victims, and the White House considered releasing the president’s list of legislative priorities.

Beyond background checks, the president wants to use an executive order to bar the use of so-called bumpstock devices that enable guns to fire like automatic weapons. And he backs more contentious ideas, like increasing the minimum age for the purchase

of assault-style weapons from 18 to 21, an idea opposed by the NRA. And he has said he supports arming certain teachers, which the gun lobby supports.

The NRA called the bulk of the proposals discussed at the White House this week “bad policy” that would not keep people safe.

Late Thursday, though, Trump tweeted that he’d had a “Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!”

The group’s executive director, Chris Cox, also tweeted about the meeting, saying Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the NRA “want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people.” Cox added that Trump and Pence “support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control.”

Still, lawmakers were frustrated by Trump’s comments a day earlier. He also had raised eyebrows by suggesting that law enforcement officials should be able to confiscate people’s firearms without a court order to prevent potential tragedies.

“Take the guns first, go through due process second,” he suggested at the time.

Republicans on Thursday forcefully criticized that remark.

“Is anyone ok with this, because I’m sure as hell not,” tweeted Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. “I swore an oath to support and defend the constitution. Speak up.”

APPEAL TO TRUMP

Democrats wasted no time outlining their top three priorities: background checks, the ability to take guns away from those who pose a “clear danger,” and a debate — at least — on banning assault-style weapons like the AR-15 used at the Florida high school.

“Not every Democrat will agree with every piece, but my caucus is prepared to provide a very large number of votes to get these passed,” Schumer said Thursday at a news conference where he outlined the Democratic proposals for gun control. “But we can’t do it alone.”

He called for Trump’s assistance in passing a gun-control measure, as Trump had publicly voiced support for each of the Democrats’ proposals.

“The president started on the right foot, but we must work together to get it done,”

Schumer said. “Words alone will not prevent the next mass shooting. One public meeting will not close background-check loopholes. One hour of television won’t get assault weapons off our streets.”

Without clear leadership, Republicans were outwardly divided over what to do next, as their offices are being flooded with calls on both sides of the issue.

Several lawmakers — Democrat and Republican — doubted that Trump would be able to move an intensely partisan Congress to act on new gun laws.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters that she was “encouraged” by the Wednesday meeting. Still, she noted that persuading members of his party to set aside their long-standing objections to even narrow new restrictions on guns would be an obstacle.

“I love my president, but I just respectfully disagree with him on this issue,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “So far, there’s been a lot of chopping, but I don’t see any chips flying, and I’m not sure that’s going to change.”

In an interview, Massie said he was disappointed

that more of his Republican colleagues were not more forcefully rebutting Trump’s comments.

“There are not a majority of Republicans in the [House] who are going to follow Donald Trump over this cliff,” Massie said, suggesting that Trump hold a meeting like Wednesday’s, in which Trump advocated several gun-control measures, at a rally of 30,000 people in Kentucky.

“I don’t think that’s going to go over well in middle America,” he added.

Some Republicans meanwhile worked in the opposite direction, introducing legislation to expand gun owners’ rights. Massie, for instance, proposed a bill that would lower the handgun purchase age requirement to 18.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said talks are ongoing and agreement on gun control is not expected “overnight.”