Congress, NRA struggle with president’s stance
WASHINGTON >> Action on gun legislation has skidded to a halt in Congress — not for a lack of bipartisan proposals, but because President Donald Trump’s stunning shift on gun policy left some in his party confused, irritated and scrambling to figure out what to do next.
Republicans squirmed over Trump’s call for stricter gun laws after the assault on a Florida high school, while Democrats seized on the opening to reach beyond a modest measure gaining traction in Congress. They unveiled a more ambitious priority list, with expanded background checks and even a politically risky ban on assault weapons.
The tug of war over the appropriate response on the school shooting remains far from settled.
Late Thursday, Trump tweeted that he’d had a “Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!”
The executive director of the National Rifle Association, Chris Cox, also tweeted about the meeting, saying Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and the NRA “want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people.” Cox added that Trump and Pence “support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control.”
The NRA has called the bulk of the proposals discussed at the White House this week “bad policy” that would not keep people safe.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that she believed Trump had arranged the NRA meeting. She said Trump’s thinking on guns had not changed since Wednesday.
Asked if Trump had made any specific promises, Sanders said “only that he’ll continue to support the Second Amendment.”
Sanders said Trump had spoken to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan Thursday. She said that for the moment, Trump supports an incremental proposal from Sens. John Cornyn and Chris Murphy though he could possibly go beyond that.
She said Trump wanted to strengthen background checks, but did not commit to universal background checks. She also said that while Trump “conceptually” supports age limits to purchase certain weapons, “he also knows there’s not a lot of broad support for that.”
Without a clear path forward for any legislation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shelved the gun debate, for now, saying the Senate would turn next week to other measures. McConnell had been preparing to push ahead with the proposal from Cornyn and Chris Murphy, but even that measure faced some GOP opposition.
“I’m hoping there’s a way forward,” he told reporters.
Congress is under pressure to act after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last month that left 17 dead. Lawmakers had been making incremental progress on a bill to boost participation in the existing federal background check bill.
But after Trump’s pronouncements this week, that legislation hardly mattered. Trump panned the bipartisan bill as little more than a building block for the “beautiful” and “comprehensive” legislation he envisioned would protect Americans from mass shootings.
“Many ideas, some good & some not so good,” Trump tweeted Thursday, singling out background checks. “After many years, a bill should emerge.”