The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Plan rollout called too little, too weak
WASHINGTON — The White House rolled out a plan for ensuring school safety against mass shootings that included endorsement of Sen. Chris Murphy’s Fix NICS bill, but sidestepped Connecticut Democratic lawmakers’ call for stronger universal background checks.
President Donald Trump’s plan accentuates his support for the NRA-backed idea of arming teachers and other volunteers to ward off mass shooters, an idea roundly condemned by Connecticut lawmakers with vivid memories of the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.
“Arming teachers is an absolutely abhorrent response to school shootings,” said Sen. Richard
Blumenthal.
“Two weeks ago when I met with the president at the White House, he said that he wasn’t afraid of the NRA and that members of Congress shouldn’t be either,” said Rep. Elizabeth Esty, referring to the White House meeting Feb. 28 in which Trump appeared to embrace much of the Democrats’ gun-control agenda. “And yet, with few exceptions, the administration’s plan is a near total surrender to that same gun lobby.”
In addition to arming teachers — accomplished with Department of Justice assistance to link schools with state and local law enforcement for firearms training — Trump is calling for states to pass extremerisk protection orders similar
to Connecticut’s 19-yearold risk warrant.
The Connecticut law enables families or law enforcement personnel to file court petitions that would result in temporary seizures of weapons from persons judged to be an imminent danger to themselves or others.
Blumenthal last week introduced a bill with Sen. Lindsey Graham to permit those in states without such laws to obtain so-called risk warrants in federal courts.
Trump would establish a Federal Commission on School Safety, to be chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. It will “recommend policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention,” the White House said in a statement.
Commentators noted Trump dismissed the idea of a study commission for opioid-addiction treatment and prevention, asking supporters at a Pennsylvania campaign-style rally, “Do you think the drug dealers who kill thousands ... care who’s on a blueribbon committee?”
Trump did a turn-around on his support for raising the age for buying semiautomatic rifles to 21, the same as handguns. He left it to the commission to study it and make recommendations.
“The president couldn’t even summon the political courage to propose raising the age limit on firearm purchases — despite his repeated promise to support such a step at a meeting with lawmakers,” Blumenthal said.
The Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry’s main trade group, hailed the Trump plan, including keeping the age for semi-automatic rifle purchases the same.
“We support proposals that bolster school security and respect constitutional rights, including the right to due process and the rights of young adults to purchase firearms for hunting, sports shooting and their own self-defense,” NSSF vice president and general counsel Lawrence Keane said in a statement.
On Twitter, Trump said of raising the age that there is “not much political support (to put it mildly),” an apparent reference to NRA opposition.
Fix NICS would offer a carrot-and-stick line of incentives to prompt states and federal agencies to submit more disqualifying records to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Licensed gun dealers rely on the system to identify prospective purchasers who are unqualified to own firearms under federal law.
Apart from Fix NICS, the White House endorsed the STOP School Violence Act, which would offer grants to help school administrators, teachers and students identify potential mass shooters before they open fire.
Mark Barden, co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise and parent of one of the 20 child victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School, appeared in Washington at a news conference to support the bill.
Sen. John Cornyn, RTexas, on Friday boasted that Fix NICS now had more than 60 co-sponsors in the Senate — enough to assure passage.
But on Monday, his staff continued to point a finger at Democrats for holding up a bill with wide bipartisan support.
“I don’t think the minority leader (Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.) opposes the bill; he actually is a cosponsor of it,” Cornyn said. “But he’s in a bind. He is being pressured by a handful of those in his conference who say, well, this is not sufficient.”
Blumenthal, however, has said it is Republicans who are holding up Fix NICS. He points to conservative Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., as using Senate rules to block a speedy path for Fix NICS to the Senate floor.
Murphy was traveling back from NATO-related meetings in Brussels and was unavailable for comment.
While the White House plan backed Fix NICS, it was silent on universal background checks — closing the so-called “gun show loophole.”
Murphy, Blumenthal, Esty and other Connecticut Democrats have described Fix NICS as low-hanging fruit, something that should be easy to pass and no substitute for a more far-reaching measure to expand background checks to private gun sales.
The move for universal background checks — requiring NICS checks for sales between individuals that under current law do not require them — gained altitude in the wake of the Newtown mass shooting.
But it stalled when the Senate fell six votes short of moving the bill for a vote on the Senate floor.
“The president’s endorsement of the ‘Fix NICS’ act, will help ensure existing law is followed, but it does nothing to ensure all gun sales are subject to background checks,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement.