President Donald Trump, under pressure from angry, grieving students from a Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people last week — ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to issue regulations banning bump stocks, which convert semi-automatic guns into automatic weapons like those used last year in the massacre of concertgoers in Las Vegas.
A day earlier, Trump signaled that he was open to supporting legislation that would modestly improve the national gun background check system, and on Tuesday night, he posted on Twitter that Democrats and Republicans “must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!”
But Trump’s first embrace as president of any gun control measures was dismissed by gun control supporters as minor. The National Rifle Association supports the background check legislation and also backs bump stock regulation, although not an outright ban.
Speaking at the White House days after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Trump said he had directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to develop the regulations.
“We cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,” Trump said at a ceremony as he conferred the medal of valor on public safety officials. “We must actually make a difference.”
In Florida on Tuesday, the Republican-controlled state House rejected an effort to immediately consider a bill to ban large-capacity magazines and the type of assault rifles used in last week’s attack, even as students from Stoneman Douglas High School watched from the gallery.
The party-line vote was on an unusual procedural motion offered by a Democrat, and Republican leaders were critical of the effort to force a vote. They said they would consider other gun control bills before the session ends in March, but none of those measures is expected to go as far as banning assault rifles.
At the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s spokeswoman, said the president was determined to find ways to protect Americans, and especially children, from gunmen. Asked about a broader ban on assault weapons, Sanders said the White House has not “closed the door on any front.”
Despite the day’s developments, there was deep skepticism in Washington that anything would change because of the long history of inaction by state and federal politicians after similar mass shootings. Gun control activists said they were braced for another disappointing battle with lawmakers.
The president, they noted, promised unwavering fealty last year to the National Rifle Association, drawing thunderous applause at its annual convention by declaring, “To the NRA, I can proudly say I will never, ever let you down.” The group in turn enthusiastically endorsed Trump and spent $30 million on his campaign.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who sponsored the latest background check measure with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he was unimpressed by Trump’s openness to it. “Let’s not pretend this is some huge concession on his part,” he said. “If this is all the White House is willing to do to address gun violence, it’s wholly insufficient.”
The background check bill, which seeks to improve the existing database used to prevent gun purchases by criminals and the mentally ill, is a small nod in the direction of gun control that does nothing to close loopholes that allow millions of gun sales without a background check. Last year, NRA officials said they were fine with it.
It is also unclear whether Trump’s statement of support for the measure, which included a desire for some “revisions,” might be linked to other legislation that the NRA backs. In the House, a similar background check measure was combined with legislation that would effectively allow people to legally carry concealed weapons in all 50 states.
That legislation is the top priority for the NRA, and gun control activists have promised to fight it aggressively.
“That normalizes the carrying of guns on all American streets,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates gun control measures. He said joining the two measures would be a “craven” bait-and-switch and “disrespectful for all the families” of the Florida school that suffered through last week’s shooting.
The president’s bump stock announcement surprised the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which did not appear to have been informed of the pending remarks from Trump. The Justice Department announced a review of the devices in early December. Led by the ATF, the review sought to determine whether the bureau — which is responsible for policing firearms — was able to regulate the devices without action from Congress.
Under the Obama administration, the bureau had determined it could not regulate them. Given that prior position, ATF officials had indicated privately in the months after the Las Vegas massacre that any ban of bump stocks would require new legislation.
Bump stocks were not used on the rifle in the shooting last week in Florida, authorities said.
Trump’s announcement Tuesday appeared to short-circuit the agency’s review. The ATF had not yet determined whether it had the authority to ban the devices when Trump directed Sessions to draft a regulation doing so.
In a statement, an ATF official said she was “not authorized to comment on pending legislation, legislative proposals or the possibility of executive action.” A Justice Department spokesman said the department “understands this is a priority for the president.”
The shooting in Florida prompted the White House to highlight the administration’s actions as students from the school included Trump among the politicians they criticized for failing to keep them safe.
In an impassioned speech Saturday, Emma Gonzalez, a senior at the school, assailed the president’s NRA ties and accused him of setting a crass monetary value on the lives of gunshot victims by taking so much money from the gun-rights group.
“If you don’t do anything to prevent this from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up and the number that they are worth will go down,” Gonzalez said Saturday at a rally for gun control. “And we will be worthless to you.”
With funerals underway for those who died at the Florida high school, Trump said he plans to host a “listening session” on Wednesday with high school students and teachers at the White House. He is scheduled to meet on Thursday with state and local officials to discuss school safety.
Sanders told reporters Tuesday that the session on Wednesday will include students and parents from the Florida school as well as people affected by school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. She did not say whether any of the student activists who have been critical of Trump were invited to the White House.
Source: Pulse.ng
