Trump backs NRA-opposed age limit
WASHINGTON — President Trump doubled down yesterday on his support for a number of reform proposals in the wake of last week’s deadly high school shooting — including one that puts him directly at odds with the nation’s most powerful gun lobby.
Trump, walking the line between the activism of Parkland, Fla., students whose classmates were killed by an AR-15-wielding gunman and the politically powerful National Rifle Association, reiterated his support for the NRArejected proposal to raise the federal minimum age for certain long guns from 18 to 21 — but also praised the organization. Federal law already prohibits people under 21 from buying handguns.
“I’ll tell you what, I spoke with the NRA — the top people,” Trump told reporters after a meeting with local and state officials at the White House.
“I spoke to them, and they’re ready to do things,” Trump said. “They want to do things. You know, they’re good people. They’re patriots.”
Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reported yesterday that on Nov. 30 last year, a caller from Massachusetts called the Broward County sheriff’s office to report that Parkland suspect Nikolas Cruz was collecting guns and knives and was a “school shooter in the making.” A Broward deputy reportedly told the caller to contact the Palm Beach sheriff.
In the unfolding school safety debate, NRA members, who in the past remained silent in the weeks following mass shooting incidents, expressed defiance yesterday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, accusing Democrats of defying the Second Amendment with weapons ban proposals and blaming the news media for putting schoolchildren’s safety at risk.
“Many in legacy media love mass shootings — you guys love it,” NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said at the CPAC event. “Now I’m not saying that you love the tragedy, but I am saying that you love the ratings.”
The tension between student advocates, who have organized a march on Washington next month, and the NRA is having a ripple effect though Congress, as lawmakers who have received support from the NRA, including Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Pat Roberts of Kansas, who yesterday expressed support of barring people under 21 from buying AR-15s.
But Trump underscored his support for the NRA-backed proposal of encouraging 10 percent to 40 percent of the nation’s teachers to carry concealed firearms in schools, suggesting that federal funds could be made available for training and providing bonuses to teachers who agree to be armed in schools.
But that plan drew condemnation from teachers’ organizations.
“Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association. “They do not need more guns in their classrooms.”
Bay State Gov. Charlie Baker joined a chorus of voices rejecting Trump’s proposal to arm teachers.
“With respect to teachers, I don’t think more guns is the answer, in classrooms, to this problem,” said Baker, becoming one of the most prominent Republican officials to publicly dismiss the president’s suggestion.
“There are a number of school districts in Massachusetts, including the one where my kids went to school, where you have resource officers who are police officers in many of your schools at various times during the day, sometimes the whole day,” he added. “Police officers are one thing, but teachers should be teachers.”