Trump demands ‘beautiful’ gun bill
President asks Congress to consider variety of proposals, including Cornyn’s background check reform
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, looking for swift action on gun violence, pressed U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and other leading senators Wednesday to work together across party lines on comprehensive legislation to bolster background checks, keep guns away from troubled shooters, arm staff in schools and possibly raise the legal age of purchase for rifles.
But presented with competing proposals in a televised White House session with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, Trump was unclear on exactly which measures he would be willing to sign to stop the national plague of mass shootings like the massacre two weeks ago at a high school in Parkland, Fla.
“It would really be nice to create something beautiful — that works,” Trump said.
Trump deflected Democratic demands that he take on the proliferation of military-style assault weapons, like the AR-15 used in the Valentine’s Day shooting in Florida. He focused instead on fortifying schools and mental illness — both Republican priorities — and background checks, an idea
that has some bipartisan support.
He also said he was willing to take on the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), if necessary. “They have great power over you people,” Trump said, chiding the lawmakers. “They have less power over me.”
It was unclear, however, what concrete plan might emerge from the meeting, an unusual live television encounter reprising another recent White House standoff on immigration.
Addressing Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, Trump implored senators to come together on two separate background check bills: One, sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, would expand gun background checks to all commercial transactions, including gun shows and internet sales.
The other, a bill sponsored by Cornyn and Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, would tighten government reporting requirements for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), but would not expand background checks.
“I’d rather have a comprehensive bill,” Trump said.
But Cornyn, along with Texas’ junior senator, Republican Ted Cruz, both voted against the Toomey-Manchin bill when it came up for a vote in 2013, shortly after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. It garnered 54 votes, six short of the 60 needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.
Murphy, arguing for universal background checks, told Trump that it would take his buy-in to convince reluctant Republicans in Congress.
Later in the Capitol, Cornyn told reporters that his legislation should be the foundation of any broader bill: “I think the best way to start, I believe, is to start with ‘Fix NICS,’ and then we can see what sort of amendments people offer that get 60 votes, but at least coming out of that we’d at least have a background check bill that would save lives.”
Cornyn said his “Fix NICS” legislation would preclude oversights like the one that allowed an Air Force veteran with domestic violence conviction in a court-martial to purchase weapons like the one he used in November to kill 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. The Air Force failed to record the conviction in the federal data base.
“It’s only as good as the data that’s put into it,” Cornyn said.
A Cornyn spokeswoman said the Fix NICS Act applies only to conviction records already required to be uploaded under current law — it does not expand records that officials are required to upload. It also provides a reporting, penalty and incentive structure for ensuring that they do so.
Concealed carry
Although the House has already cleared a similar measure, it is tied to legislation making it easier for holders of concealed carry permits to travel with their weapons across state lines. Democrats, who have enough votes to block the legislation in the Senate, have balked at the House bill.
Trump, though declaring himself a “fan” of the concealed carry measure, encouraged House Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise — himself recovering from a shooting last fall in suburban Virginia — to peel it out of the gun legislation he hopes to see Congress enact soon.
“You’ll never get it passed,” Trump said. “We want to get something done.”
Trump also had advice for Cornyn, suggesting that he change the name of his Fix NICS bill and merge it into a broader bill on background checks — essentially rewriting it. “Maybe we could make it much more comprehensive,” Trump said.
Cornyn’s bill also has come under fire from Democrats in the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it doesn’t go far enough to beef up background checks.
But in a Senate speech earlier Wednesday, Cornyn, who has 46 co-sponsors for his bill — including Schumer — termed it a good start.
“I realize that it may not be as comprehensive as some people would like,” Cornyn said. “The problem is around here, if you ignore the things that you can agree on and just look to fight about things you can’t agree on, nothing ever happens. No problems ever get solved.”
While Trump endorsed Cornyn’s bill, he focused most of his remarks on the importance of ending what he called “gun free zones” that he said leave shooting victims defenseless.
“We want to pass something great, and to me, something great has to be when you stop it from happening,” Trump said. “And I think there’s only one way.”
Trumps remarks came two days after he talked to a similar gathering of governors about the importance of having armed staff in schools, including some teachers, an idea several teachers’ groups have rejected.
‘Take the guns first’
As he has in recent days, Trump also said Congress should include measures to make it easier to obtain gun restraining orders or take weapons away from people who show signs of being mentally ill and dangerous, even in advance of any legal action.
“I’d like to take the guns early,” he said. “Take the guns first, go through due process later.”
While many of the ideas remained vague, Trump said one area where he might be willing to break from the NRA would be on raising the minimum age for buying long rifles to 21, an idea strenuously opposed by hunting groups.
Despite the treacherous political turf in the gun debate, Trump sounded an optimistic note on improving gun background checks in some form. “I think we’re going to have a vote, and it’s going to be a very successful vote,” he said. “And I will sign it.”