Prez unloads school gun control issue
New plan passes it to ed boss
WASHINGTON — President Trump yesterday unveiled a barebones plan to combat school shootings that marked his retreat from gun control policies he had repeatedly championed just weeks ago, in a move likely to soothe the powerful National Rifle Association.
Trump’s new plan focuses on “hardening” schools with increased security and expresses support for boosting some background checks. But it punts the issue of gun control to a commission, headed by his pro-gun Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to review. It also leaves NRA-backed proposals, such as arming teachers, on the table — but defers such policies to the states to decide.
The proposals are a stark departure from Trump’s comments at a White House meeting last month during which he endorsed the idea of raising the age to purchase AR-15s and other highpowered long guns from 18 to 21 in the wake of the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead at the hands of a 19-year-old wielding an AR-15style rifle.
At his meeting, held days after the massacre, Trump chided GOP lawmakers for not including an age-hike provision in legislation they proposed, telling them it was “because you’re afraid of the NRA, right?”
The very next night, Trump held an unscheduled White House meeting with NRA leaders, tweeting afterward: “Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!”
Since then, the president has gradually backed off the idea of gun purchase age limits.
A White House official said that the president reacted not to opposition by the NRA, but from lawmakers — a distinction without a difference, given the legislative scorecard the NRA uses to determine whether to attack lawmakers come re-election time.
Gun-control advocates said the president missed a crucial opportunity to lead.
“President Trump has offered only drips of water in response to a five-alarm fire,” said Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Sandy Hook Promise, a group whose representatives met with Trump and Parkland students and parents at the White House, said in a statement that Trump’s plan “shows that there is room for common ground and we must work together to pass solutions.”
But it also acknowledged how far away school safety advocates and the White House are from consensus.
“We do not agree on everything,” the statement said. “We absolutely do not need more guns in schools or to fortress our schools like prisons. And we can and must take additional, robust action to ensure that individuals who are a danger to themselves or others do not have access to firearms.”