Congress leaves with no action on gun control or school safety
Congress WASHINGTON — is leaving Washington in the aftermath of the latest mass shooting having done nothing to counteract systemic gun violence or improve school safety, with President Donald Trump’s extraordinary summit giving lawmakers little clarity on what policy measure he would ultimately endorse.
The Senate has been unable to untangle objections to a modest, relatively noncontroversial bill meant to improve the system for providing information to a federal background-check database. And without much guidance from the White House, Democrats and Republicans began laying out their proposals Thursday in an effort to prevent tragedies such as the Feb. 14 shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school - but it’s far from clear how those measures can succeed without Trump’s backing.
Meanwhile, conservatives were apoplectic over Trump’s departure from GOP orthodoxy on guns, particularly his comment at Wednesday’s summit that firearms could be seized before their owners could be judged unfit to possess them.
“On the due process issue, that comment concerned me greatly,” said Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., otherwise a reliable Trump ally. “I disagree with the president on that issue. I think it’s a fundamental, constitutional Fourth Amendment issue.”
Several Republican lawmakers spoke up on social media and in other forums to push back on that notion, as well as Trump’s advocacy for stronger background checks and a higher minimum age for rifle purchases - taking it from 18 to 21, the current minimum age for handgun purchases.
In an interview, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., 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. “He should come back to Kentucky and do a rally with 30,000 people with [Sen.] Dianne Feinstein next to him giggling and [Sen.] John Cornyn to his left proposing gun control that would deprive veterans of their right to keep and bear arms. I don’t think that’s going to go over well in middle America.”
Massie was referring to the White House summit when Trump’s support for some gun controls left Feinstein, D-Calif., giddy and Cornyn, R-Texas, tight-lipped.
While numerous Republicans pushed back on Trump’s gun remarks - or, in some cases, tried to explain them away - Democrats tried to use the president’s comments to their advantage.
On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said his caucus would focus on passing a bill that would require the national criminalbackground- check system to apply to firearms purchases made on the Internet or at gun shows; legislation allowing temporary protective orders to disarm people deemed to be a harm to themselves or others; and would be pushing for “a debate” - not necessarily passage - of a ban on assault-style weapons that expired during George W. Bush’s administration.
Each of the proposals has been backed by Trump in his recent public comments.
“Not every Republican is going to vote for this ,” Sc hum er said .“But if the president works the room - meaning the Senate - we can get this done.”
National polling has shown wide support - more than 90 percent in some surveys - for bolstering the criminal-background-check system. A similar proposal was pushed by President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers in 2013 but failed to advance through Congress following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.