{"id":59841,"date":"2018-03-01T05:11:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T05:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=59841"},"modified":"2018-03-01T05:11:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T05:11:54","slug":"trump-stuns-lawmakers-with-seeming-embrace-of-gun-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-stuns-lawmakers-with-seeming-embrace-of-gun-control.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump Stuns Lawmakers With Seeming Embrace of Gun Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Stuns Lawmakers With Seeming Embrace of Gun Control<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

President Trump stunned Republicans on live television Wednesday by embracing gun control and urging a group of lawmakers at the White House to resurrect gun safety legislation that has been opposed for years by the powerful National Rifle Association and the vast majority of his party.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a remarkable meeting, the president veered wildly from the N.R.A. playbook in front of giddy Democrats and stone-faced Republicans. He called for comprehensive gun control legislation that would expand background checks to weapons purchased at gun shows and on the internet, keep guns from mentally ill people, secure schools and restrict gun sales for some young adults. He even suggested a conversation on an assault weapons ban.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point, Mr. Trump suggested that law enforcement authorities should have the power to seize guns from mentally ill people or others who could present a danger without first going to court. \u201cI like taking the guns early,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cTake the guns first, go through due process second.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The declarations prompted a frantic series of calls from N.R.A. lobbyists to their allies on Capitol Hill and a statement from the group calling the ideas that Mr. Trump expressed \u201cbad policy.\u201d Republican lawmakers suggested to reporters that they remained opposed to gun control measures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not ditching any constitutional protections simply because the last person the president talked to today doesn\u2019t like them,\u201d Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe White House can now launch a lobbying campaign to get universal background checks passed, as the president promised in this meeting, or they can sit and do nothing,\u201d said Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the core of Mr. Trump\u2019s suggestion was the revival of a bipartisan bill drafted in 2013 by Senators Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Despite a concerted push by President Barack Obama and the personal appeals of Sandy Hook parents, the bill fell to a largely Republican filibuster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s embrace did not immediately yield converts. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said after the meeting that he was unmoved, repeating the Republican dogma that recent shootings were not \u201cconducted by someone who bought a gun at a gun show or parking lot.\u201d Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, who sat next to the president looking flustered, emerged from the meeting and declared, \u201cI thought it was fascinating television and it was surreal to actually be there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mr. Trump suggested that the dynamics in Washington had changed after the school shooting in Florida that claimed 17 lives, in part because of his own leadership in the White House, a sentiment that the Democrats in the room readily appeared to embrace as they saw the president supporting their ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be so beautiful to have one bill that everyone could support,\u201d Mr. Trump said as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and a longtime advocate of gun control, sat smiling to his left. \u201cIt\u2019s time that a president stepped up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats tried to turn sometimes muddled presidential musings into firm policy: \u201cYou saw the president clearly saying not once, not twice, not three times, but like 10 times, that he wanted to see a strong universal background check bill,\u201d said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota. \u201cHe didn\u2019t mince words about it. So I do not understand how then he could back away from that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Just what the performance means, and whether Mr. Trump will aggressively push for new gun restrictions, remain uncertain given his history of taking erratic positions on policy issues, especially ones that have long polarized Washington and the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gun control performance on Wednesday was reminiscent of a similar televised discussion with lawmakers about immigration in January during which the president appeared to back bipartisan legislation to help young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children \u2014 only to reverse himself and push a hard-line approach that helped scuttle consensus in the Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s comments during the hourlong meeting were at odds with his history as a candidate and president who has repeatedly declared his love for the Second Amendment and the N.R.A., which gave his campaign $30 million. At the group\u2019s annual conference last year, Mr. Trump declared, \u201cTo the N.R.A., I can proudly say I will never, ever let you down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But at the meeting, the president repeatedly rejected the N.R.A.\u2019s top legislative priority, a bill known as concealed-carry reciprocity, which would allow a person with permission to carry a concealed weapon in one state to automatically do so in every state. To the dismay of Republicans, he dismissed the measure as having no chance at passage in the Congress. Republican leaders in the House had paired that N.R.A. priority with a modest measure to improve data reporting to the existing instant background check system.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll never get it,\u201d Mr. Trump told Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the House Republican whip who was gravely injured in a mass shooting last year but still opposes gun restrictions. \u201cYou\u2019ll never get it passed. We want to get something done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump also flatly insisted that legislation should raise the minimum age for buying rifles to 21 from 18 \u2014 an idea the N.R.A. and many Republicans fiercely oppose. When Mr. Toomey pushed back on an increase in the minimum age for rifles, the president accused him of fearing the N.R.A. \u2014 a remarkable slap since the association withdrew its support for Mr. Toomey over his background check bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a Republican who\u2019s demonstrated he\u2019s not afraid of the N.R.A., that would be me,\u201d Mr. Toomey said after the meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president appeared eager to challenge the impression that he is bought and paid for by the gun rights group. While calling the membership of the N.R.A. \u201cwell meaning,\u201d he also said he told its leaders at a lunch on Sunday that \u201cit\u2019s time. We\u2019re going to stop this nonsense. It\u2019s time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials at the gun group were taken aback by the president\u2019s comments and immediately ramped up their lobbying against measures that they have long said would damage the Second Amendment and do little to protect people against gun violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile today\u2019s meeting made for great TV, the gun control policies discussed would make bad policy that wouldn\u2019t keep our children safer,\u201d said Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the N.R.A.\u2019s lobbying arm. \u201cWe are going to continue to work to pass policies that might actually prevent another horrific tragedy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But at least for Wednesday, Mr. Trump seemed willing to venture far from the N.R.A. script, even appearing to suggest that he might back an ban on assault-style weapons when Ms. Feinstein asked what they could do about \u201cweapons of war.\u201d The N.R.A. has helped defeat an assault weapons ban since the last one expired in 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reaction in Washington was swift. Breitbart.com, a right-wing site once led by Stephen K. Bannon, the president\u2019s onetime chief strategist, published an article with a headline in bright red that said, \u201cTRUMP THE GUN GRABBER.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The site added that the president \u201cCedes Dems\u2019 Wish List \u2014 Bump Stocks, Buying Age, \u2018Assault Weapons,\u2019 Background Checks. Tells Scalise to Take a Hike \u2014 After Surviving Assassination Attempt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The president did return several times to a proposal that conservatives like: arming teachers in schools and ending the so-called gun-free zones around schools that Mr. Trump said had made those institutions among the most vulnerable targets for mass shooters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have defense, too,\u201d the president told the lawmakers. \u201cYou can\u2019t just be sitting ducks. And that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve allowed people in these buildings and schools to be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But several times, he acknowledged how controversial that proposal was, and seemed to accept the idea that it might not be included in a comprehensive gun control measure that could pass both chambers of Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also backed a modest measure sponsored by a Republican and a Democrat in the Senate to improve the quality of the data in the background check system. But he told the bill\u2019s author, Mr. Cornyn, to consider just adding that proposal to the broader expansion of the background check system.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice to add everything on to it,\u201d Mr. Trump said. \u201cMaybe change the title. Maybe we could make it much more comprehensive and have one bill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/28\/us\/politics\/trump-gun-control.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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