Donald Trump has called for bipartisan legislation to strengthen background checks on people trying to buy guns. The tweet, which was confusingly sent as a reply to another unrelated tweet about media coverage of an ‘anti-Trump Russia rally’, offered no specifics on the issue.
However, it is the first concrete sign that the White House could move to make changes to gun legislation. ‘Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!’ he wrote.
Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2018
He also directed the Department of Justice to move to ban devices like the rapid-fire bump stocks that were used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre.
In a memo, he urged the department to complete their review as soon as possible and propose a rule ‘banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns’. It comes less than a week after 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
‘We must do more to protect our children,’ Trump said, adding that his administration was working hard to respond to the Parkland shooting.
Asked at a press briefing if Trump was open to reinstating a ban on assault-type weapons, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House ‘hasn’t closed the door on any front’. She also said that raising the age limit for buying an AR-15 was ‘on the table for us to discuss’. Since the Parkland shooting students, teachers, parents and political figures have been calling for much more stringent gun laws, including an assault rifle ban.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut and advocate for tighter gun controls, said this suggested that the president was aware of fresh energy on the issue, and called it a sign that ‘for the first time’ politicians are ‘scared of the political consequences of inaction on guns’.
On Wednesday, Trump will host parents, teachers and students at the White House for a ‘listening session’ that will include people impacted by mass shootings in Parkland, Columbine, Colorado and Newtown. The discussion of at least some types of gun control legislation is a dramatic turnaround for Florida, which had earned the nickname ‘the Gunshine State’ for its lax gun policies.
