South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
2020 hopefuls fault Trump, NRA
Hopefuls say reform needed in wake of Ohio, Texas attacks
Candidates place blame on president, gun rights advocacy group at forum a week after two mass shootings.
DES MOINES, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday placed responsibility for inaction on gun violence in the hands of President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association, in the face of broad national support for some gun control measures.
“If most Americans insist that something be done and it doesn’t happen, it means we need fundamental reform,” Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said at a presidential forum on gun violence in downtown Des Moines.
The forum comes a week after a pair of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas shook the nation and reignited a debate surrounding gun rights in America.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in response to a question on how to avoid stigmatizing mental illness when the president has repeatedly highlighted that issue in response to mass shootings, called Trump a liar. Most people with a mental illness are not violent.
“It’s just President Trump lying to the American people again, being inauthentic about what the problem is trying to distract, and trying not to take responsibility for what is happening in this nation,” she said.
California Sen. Kamala Harris also put some of the blame on Trump’s shoulders, saying that the president “didn’t pull the trigger, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a sweeping gun control agenda before the forum Saturday.
but he’s tweeting out the ammunition.”
“If he said ‘Hey, Mitch McConnell, bring that House bill over here,’ it would happen,” she said.
A number of the presidential hopefuls have released gun control policies since the shootings.
On Saturday, the Democrats largely agreed on the broad contours of the policy debate, emphasizing the need to close background check loopholes, ban assault weapons and fund research into gun violence. Most of the candidates also
called for campaign finance reform as a solution to combat the influence of the NRA on elections.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a sweeping gun control agenda Saturday before the event, starting with a trio of actions she vowed to immediately take if elected — including an expansion of background checks accomplished by redefining the federal standard for those “engaged in the business” of gun sales — and continuing with a list of legislative priorities.
Chief among Warren’s longer-term gun control goals, she explained, are the creation of a federal license for any firearm purchase, exponentially higher taxes on guns and ammunition sales and a one-gun-permonth purchasing limit.
Vice President Joe Biden proposed putting biometric scanners on guns so that only the owner could use them, and said laws should be changed to allow individuals to sue gun manufacturers for false advertising. And Harris has pledged to pursue executive actions to combat gun violence if Congress doesn’t move on legislation within her first 100 days in office, including closing the legal loophole that allows domestic abusers to buy guns and requiring background checks for customers of any gun dealer that sells more than five guns a year.
Harris joined Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Housing Secretary Julian Castro in calling for Walmart to end gun sales.
Warren urged Americans on Saturday to put pressure on the company by taking their business elsewhere.
A Walmart spokesman has said the company is conducting “a thorough review of our policies” after the shooting.
A trio of more moderate candidates at the forum — Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar — called on gun owners to get involved in the gun control effort.
“If we can ever look at this issue as not a political issue but a public health issue, we know what to do. The majority of gun owners, the majority of NRA members, all of us think universal background checks make a heck of a lot of sense,” Bullock said, noting he uses guns and has taken his son hunting.
A 2017 Pew Research Center poll showed a slight majority of NRA members — and more than threefourths of gun owners polled — support stronger background checks.
Both Buttigieg and Biden criticized what they described as absolutism on gun rights from Second Amendment proponents.
“Anyone can have a slingshot. No one can have a nuclear weapon. Somewhere between a water balloon and a Predator drone, America gets to draw a line in order to keep ourselves safe,” Buttigieg said.
Biden declared that “no amendment is absolute.”
A number of the candidates expressed optimism that there was momentum in favor of gun reform.
“There’s a tipping point that’s been reached,” Klobuchar said. “I feel it out there.”