Trump ‘supportive’ of bill to improve gun database
The White House said President Trump supports efforts to improve the federal gun background check system after a school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said yesterday that the president had spoken to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, about a bipartisan bill designed to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers.
Sanders said, “While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system.”
The bill would penalize federal agencies that fail to provide the necessary records and reward states that comply with federal grant preferences and other incentives.
Trump has been a strong supporter of gun rights and the National Rifle Association.
The news comes as Florida state Sen. Bill Galvano, a Republican and incoming Senate president, said the Sunshine State’s Senate is preparing a sweeping package of legislation in the aftermath of the deadly shooting.
The legislation includes new age restrictions for gun purchases, a ban on bump stocks and gun-violence restraining orders.
Seventeen people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last week and legislative leaders saw firsthand the building where the shootings took place.
The state Senate is considering a wide array of measures that also include boosting spending on mental health programs for schools and giving lawenforcement greater power to involuntarily hold someone considered a danger to themselves.
The raging debate comes as student survivors of the shooting, who hope to become the face of a revived gun control movement, began challenging the president.
Several students have criticized the president, whose election was strongly supported by the NRA and who ran on a platform opposing gun control.
Trump spent the weekend in South Florida, only an hour’s drive from Stoneman Douglas High School. His only mentions of the massacre came in tweets Saturday contending the FBI was too focused on the Russia investigation to respond to warnings about the alleged shooter and mocking Democrats for failing to pass gun control.