Gun control flip-flop

While Trump puts on a show, voters and politicians must work to make us all safer.

Well, that didn’t take long, did it? On Wednesday, President Donald Trump presided over a bizarre White House meeting with lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence about guns and school safety, and he seemed to call for measures that would please the most ardent guncontrol Democrats in Congress. Ban bump stocks. Deny gun access to spousal abusers. Forget about concealed-carry reciprocity between states. Raise the minimum age to get an assault rifle to 21. Thus sayeth the president — or so it seemed.

We were as surprised as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a longtime advocate for sensible gun measures who was sitting beside the president. From her half smile and wide-eyed expression, it seemed she could hardly believe what she was hearing, particularly when the president accused Republican senators at the table of being “scared of the NRA.”

Feinstein had good reason to be skeptical. Just last month, the issue was immigration, and in a televised meeting with lawmakers the president seemed to support relief for Dreamers and other immigrationreform measures that left Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, DN.Y., and fellow Democrats almost giddy.

Their happiness dissipated in a New York minute. Within a couple of days young nativist-in-residence and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, in tandem with White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the hardest of hard-liners on immigration, escorted the president to re-education camp, and it was as if his promise to Dreamers was itself a dream. It was back to the hard line — back to the hard border, so to speak.

So who would be the president’s Stephen Miller on guns? We found out Friday morning. After Trump held an Oval Office meeting the evening before with NRA Executive Director Chris W. Cox and other gunlobby poohbahs, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, in essence, that the president hadn’t really meant what he had said on Wednesday.

She said the White House continues deliberating on what type of proposals it will support in the wake of what some are calling the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” of 17 people in Parkland, Fla. She said Trump still supports raising the age limit to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21 but added that he understands there is “not a lot of broad support” for such a proposal.

Asked whether the president made any promises to the NRA officials during their Thursday-night meeting, Sanders said: “Only that he'll continue to support the Second Amendment. That's not something that he's backed away from.”

What Sanders also was saying — without saying, of course — is that Trump has no idea what he wants, has no grasp of policy (whether it’s guns or immigration) and holds no firm, carefully considered position on much of anything, including guns. It’s past time for lawmakers to tune out his blather.

Meanwhile, proponents of sensible gun legislation in Congress and in state houses around the country need to continue pushing for concrete reform and hope for reinforcements in November.

Voters must do more than hope. In the streets and in social media, in town hall meetings and candidate forums, they must insist that those seeking their vote support the following: Truly universal background checks; Raising the legal age for buying a gun to 21; Keeping guns away from domestic abusers; Banning assault weapons and limiting rifle magazine size; Refusing to accept NRA campaign contributions . The NRA and its foot soldiers in office know that change is coming. The continued influence of the brave and resourceful Parkland youngsters and polls revealing that young Americans have had it with gun insanity are signs rich with portent. Change may be arriving sooner than the gun lobbyists think.