USA TODAY International Edition
Trump pressured on gun control
He indicates support for better system of checks
WASHINGTON – The businessman who once supported tighter gun control – and then opposed it after he became a presidential candidate – is now under pressure to switch back in favor of certain new firearms laws.
In the wake of last week’s mass shooting at a South Florida high school, Trump has White House meetings scheduled this week with groups of students and local officials about the prospects of tougher gun laws to protect schools.
The president on Monday expressed some support for changes to the gun background check system, by opening the door to a bipartisan congressional proposal designed to improve the sharing of mental health and criminal record information between state and local agencies and the federal background check database.
“While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
Trump himself did not comment on the gun issue Monday. His weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., was dominated by a renewed gun debate after a student was charged with killing 17 people and injuring more than a dozen others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Sanders confirmed that Trump spoke on Friday with Sen. John Cornyn, RTexas, about a background check bill he has introduced with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Murphy said Trump’s apparent support “is another sign the politics of gun violence are shifting rapidly.” In a tweet, the Connecticut senator said that “no one should pretend this bill alone is an adequate response to this epidemic.”
Yet is unclear how far Trump is willing to go on gun control – or if he’ll take any action.
During his weekend at Mar-a-Lago, Trump visited a local hospital to speak with people injured in the shooting and their families. Some of the students who survived blanketed cable television news programs — some watched by Trump — to press their case for gun legislation.
During a Saturday rally, student and shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez went after the National Rifle Association by saying that “politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call B.S . ... They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call B.S.”
Previous mass shootings during Trump’s term — from the Las Vegas Strip to a church in South Texas, both within the past five months — have not led to legislative action, in part because Republicans who run Congress say they would be ineffective and in some cases would infringe on Second Amendment gun rights.
In a 2000 book, published well before he ran for president, Trump said he generally opposes gun control, but at that time did back a “ban on assault weapons” and “a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.”
During his 2016 campaign, Trump became a champion of the Second Amendment and welcomed contributions from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups. During the NRA convention last year, Trump bashed predecessor Barack Obama and said, “the eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end. You have a true friend and champion in the White House.”
Geraldo Rivera of Fox News, who spoke with Trump over the weekend, said he suggested the president back a law to deny the sale of certain weapons to anyone under the age of 21. On Twitter, Rivera also suggested a “safe schools act” to provide federal money for security guards and consultants on “hardening educational institutions to protect our most valuable assets: our school kids.”
Trump’s critics are skeptical about whether he will push for anything.
Rick Wilson, a Florida Republican political consultant who has been critical of Trump, said he suspects Trump is “reacting to the fact that he had a lot of folks at Mar-a-Lago reacting” to the killings of students.
“I’d be surprised if there was actual action,” he said.