Trump: I’ll fight NRA, would’ve rushed killer
He suggests making it easier to commit people involuntarily.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he’s willing to take on the National Rifle Association, though he doubts it will resist his response to the high school massacre that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month.
Trump, in a freewheeling discussion with governors at the White House that lasted more than an hour, also said he would have run into the school unarmed to try to confront the attacker, contrasting his hypothetical response with sheriff ’s deputies who didn’t enter the building during the rampage.
The president’s evolving responses to the mass shooting have been largely consistent with the outlook of the NRA, particularly an emphasis Trump has put on arming schoolteachers. The organization has been a strong political ally of the president, spending $31 million in the 2016 election either to support Trump or attack his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“Don’t worry about the NRA; they’re on our side,” Trump said during the meeting with state governors, adding that he had lunch over the weekend with NRA Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre and top lobbyist Chris Cox. “But sometimes we’re going to have to be very tough, and we’re going to have to fight them.”
Businesses are rushing to cut ties to the NRA. Among the companies that severed deals with the NRA: Avis Budget, Best Western International, Chubb, Delta Air Lines, MetLife, Symantec and United Continental Holdings. Others are under intense social media pressure to follow.
Trump suggested the country also should make it easier to involuntarily commit people to psychiatric institutions and open more such facilities.
“In the old days you’d put him in a mental institution, a lot of them, and you could nab somebody like this,” Trump said, referring to the Florida shooting suspect, Nikolas Cruz. “Hopefully he gets help or whatever, but he’s off the streets.”
“We’re going to have to start talking about mental institutions,” Trump said, complaining that states had closed too many “because of cost.”
Trump reiterated disparaging comments about the armed sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school who didn’t enter the school while the shooting was taking place, saying he “choked” under the pressure of the situation. He also referenced a CNN report that several other armed sheriff ’s deputies who were among the first officers to arrive at the school didn’t initially enter.
“I really believe, you don’t know until you’re tested, but I think I’d, I really believe I’d run in even if I didn’t have a weapon,” Trump said.
Monday’s meeting at the White House was a wide-ranging discussion of ideas to address gun violence at schools. Suggestions ranged from a possibly new rating system for violent videos to arming teachers to filling schools with smoke during an attack to make it harder for a shooter to find targets.
Trump has called for changes in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at the Parkland high school. He has voiced support for expanding the background check system to include more mental health information, raising the age for the purchase of some guns to 21 from 18, and regulatory action ending the sale of “bump stocks.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders injected uncertainty on Trump’s backing for raising age limits, saying the president is “supportive of the concept,” but the idea is “still being discussed,” and his position will depend on the final form of legislation.
Trump has signaled support for a bipartisan bill from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, known as Fix-NICS. It would penalize federal agencies that fail to report relevant criminal records that would bar someone from purchasing a firearm under current law to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.