NRA, Trump split on raising gun age

He speaks of 21 for semi-automatics

WASHINGTON — A spokesman for the National Rifle Association on Sunday pushed back against proposals to raise the age to purchase a semi-automatic weapon to 21, an idea that President Donald Trump has seemed to embrace in recent days.

Trump predicted the NRA will sign on to legislation he says will come together “very soon” to tighten gun laws.

The White House wants to address increased background checks on firearms purchases, limits on gun ownership by the mentally ill and “perhaps” raise the minimum age for more sales to age 21, the president has said.

“There’s no bigger champion than I am for the Second Amendment,” Trump said in an interview Saturday with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, in which he also restated his support for arming as many as 20 percent of teachers as a way to deter school shooters.

“I think you’re going to have tremendous support” for a plan he said the White House is drafting. Trump

also suggested he favors a combination of new gun limits and “offensive” approaches such as a controversial call to arm teachers. “It’s time. I think the NRA’s going to be for it.”

Dana Loesch said the NRA’s opposition to the change is “incredibly clear” and stressed that Trump has not formally backed the idea.

“These are just things that he’s discussing right now,” Loesch said during an appearance on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

“I know that people are trying to find daylight between President Trump and 5 million law-abiding gun owners, and law-abiding gun owners all across the United States,” Loesch said, referring to the size of the NRA’s membership.

The NRA strongly backed Trump during the 2016 election, and last week Trump praised the organization’s leaders, calling them “great patriots.”

But after the school shooting in South Florida that claimed 17 lives, Trump has said repeatedly that raising the age for purchasing semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 may be one of the measures worthy of consideration. Under current law, one must be 21 to buy a handgun.

“It doesn’t seem to make sense that you have to wait until you are 21 years old to get a pistol, but to get a gun like this maniac used in the school, you get that at 18,” Trump said on Justice with Judge Jeanine.

Trump told Pirro that he had “explained that to the NRA.”

“They are great people,” the president said. “But I said, ‘Fellas, we have to get going on some really good legislation.’”

In a statement last week, the NRA said that raising the age limit on buying semi-automatic rifles to 21 would infringe on the constitutional rights of people who are 18 to 20 years old.

UNDER PRESSURE

After a 10-day break, members of Congress are returning to work under hefty pressure to respond to the outcry over gun violence. But no plan appears ready to take off despite a long list of proposals, including many from Trump.

Republican leaders have kept quiet for days as Trump tossed out ideas. Their silence has left little indication whether they are ready to rally their ranks behind any one of the president’s ideas, dust off another proposal or do nothing.

The halting start reflects firm GOP opposition to any bill that would curb access to guns and risk antagonizing gun advocates in their party.

“There’s no magic bill that’s going to stop the next thing from happening when so many laws are already on the books that weren’t being enforced, that were broken,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the third-ranking House GOP leader, when asked about solutions. “The breakdowns that happen, this is what drives people nuts,” said Scalise, who suffered life-threatening injuries when a gunman opened fire on lawmakers’ baseball team practice last year.

Trump plans to convene lawmakers from both parties next week at the White House on the issue of school safety.

“It’s time to get it done and get it done right,” the president said of gun legislation. “Somebody who’s mentally ill should not have a weapon, should not have a gun.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has been invited to Trump’s meeting. “I was encouraged that President Trump said he was in favor of comprehensive background checks,” Murphy said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. “I’m hopeful the president may be willing to take on the NRA.”

He said he did not expect the Florida shooting to lead to a major breakthrough in Congress for those who’ve long pushed for tighter gun laws.

“There’s not going to be a turning point politically,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. Rather, it’s about “slowly and methodically” building a political movement.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., predicted on Sunday that Trump’s backing would make a difference on efforts in Congress to address recent mass shootings.

“The president’s expression of support for strengthening our background check system is very constructive,” Toomey said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Our president can play a huge and, in fact, probably decisive role in this.” He is reviving a bill he proposed earlier with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to expand presale checks for firearms purchases online and at gun shows.

First introduced after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 children and six staff members were killed, the measure has twice been rejected by the Senate.

Still, Toomey said he was skeptical about certain proposals being floated, including raising the age to legally buy certain assault weapons to 21 from 18.

But some Republicans backed the president on that.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he would support raising the age limit to buy a semi-automatic weapon like the one used in Florida. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also supports lifting the age for rifle purchases. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla. and a longtime NRA member, wrote in The New York Times that he now supports an assault-weapons ban.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said on NBC that Congress was likely to show the “courage” that lawmakers didn’t exhibit after the Sandy Hook shooting.

Part of that could be self-preservation as mid-term elections loom. Murphy said Republican lawmakers “are realizing that they are badly mispositioned on this issue and they may pay a big price in the polls if they continue to do nothing.”

The Senate is considering a bipartisan bill from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas and Murphy to strengthen FBI background checks — a response to a shooting last November in which a gunman killed more than two dozen people at a Texas church.

That bill would penalize federal agencies that don’t properly report required records and reward states that comply by providing them with federal grant preferences. It was drafted after the Air Force acknowledged that it failed to report the Texas gunman’s domestic violence conviction to the National Criminal Information Center database.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was skeptical Trump would follow through on proposals such as comprehensive background checks that the NRA opposes.

“The real test of President Trump and the Republican Congress is not words and empathy, but action,” Schumer said in a statement.

Governors who gathered in Washington for their annual winter meeting also warned of the perils of inaction.

“I think for Republicans our challenge in the next race is going to be about appealing to the suburban vote that hasn’t been so good for Republicans the last few races,” said Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, citing in particular suburban women. It is clear, he added, that “people want to see action.”

There was agreement on the issue between Democrats and some Republicans. “We do it for alcohol; we’re talking about raising the age for tobacco to 21,” said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican. “I think that’s worth talking about.”

Some, though, warned against a rush to enact new laws.

“I think there’s a temptation just to do a whole host of things that are not really addressing the fundamental problem but would make people feel better that they’ve done things,” said Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.