‘I want to do background checks like we’ve never had before’ says Donald Trump as he says Congress is ‘getting close’ to a gun control bill but has no appetite for banning ‘assault weapons’
- President favors an expansion of mandatory background checks for gun buyers
- He predicts Congress is ready to act but not to ban ‘assault weapons’ that resemble military weapons but function like hunting rifles
- Trump and lawmakers are up against the U.S. Constitution, which protects Americans’ right ‘to keep and bear arms’
- But in the wake of two mass-shootings on Saturday they are being press to act
- President is visiting Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas on Wednesday, the cities where the gunmen attacked
Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is warming to the idea of enacting a law that would expand America’s system of background checks for gun purchasers, especially those with histories of mental illness.
‘I think background checks are important,’ he said Wednesday. ‘I don’t want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable or people with rage or hate, sick people. I don’t want to. I’m all in favor of it.’
But he said there isn’t a significant enough ‘appetite’ in Congress for action to ban certain types of firearms commonly referred to as ‘assault rifles.’
Federal law currently requires background checks for anyone who buys a firearm from a licensed dealer, but most private sales are exempt.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he favors an expansion of mandatory background checks for gun buyers
Rifles like this semi-automatic AR-15 are legal to own in the U.S. as long as they can’t fire machine-gun style; they generally look like fully automatic military weapons but function like hunting rifles.
Anti-gun activists gathered to protest Trump’s arrival outside a hospital in Dayton, Ohio in advance of Trump’s visit Wednesday
Rifles like the popular AR-15 and the less common AK-47 are legal to own in the U.S. as long as they are ‘semi-automatic’ and not converted to fire multiple rounds, machine-gun style, with a single press of the trigger.
They generally look like fully automatic military weapons but function like hunting rifles.
Reporters pressed the president about new gun control measures as he left the White House Wednesday to visit Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, where gunmen killed a total of 41 people on Saturday.
‘There’s a great appetite, and I mean a very strong appetite, for background checks,’ he said, describing the mood in Congress, ‘and I think we can bring up background checks like we’ve never had before.’
‘I think both Republicans and Democrats are getting close to a bill, doing something,’ he said.
That forward motion may come in the form of what Republicans call a ‘red-flag’ law, allowing police to take guns away from people they believe pose an imminent threat to themselves or others.
Democrats are demanding universal background checks for all gun purchases, in addition to any move toward enabling states to enact ‘Extreme Risk Protection Orders.’
‘As long as the gun show and online sales loopholes exist, someone prohibited from possessing a gun under an ERPO law could still purchase a firearm far too easily,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday in a statement.
Police officers responded to a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas on Saturday, where a gunman killed 22 people
And ‘the proposal Republicans are pursuing would not mandate states to institute ERPO laws,’ he charged.
‘Instead, it would just provide grant incentives for states to implement laws of their own, which runs the risk of doing more harm than good in the long run if states decide to take up weaker laws.’
Nearly all the mass-shooters in the past 10 years bought their weapons legally, through licensed dealers, in transactions that are subject to background checks.
House Democrats have already passed a background check bill, which the Senate has not acted on.
Trump has framed the latest gun massacres as the result of a mental health crisis, not as a sign that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been applied too broadly, allowing too many Americans to own too many guns.
The Amendment requires that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says giving police the right to seize guns from people who pose a threat to themselves or others will be meaningless if they can still buy firearms from unlicensed private dealers without undergoing background checks
Mourners took part in a vigil near the border fence between Mexico and the U.S. after the El Paso massacre
Conservatives and gun-rights advocates say banning one type of rifle because its design resembles a military weapon would be unfair and arbitrary.
Trump signaled that Congress, especially the Republican-controlled Senate, isn’t prepared to tread that far.
‘You have to have a political appetite within Congress and so far I have not seen that,’ he said.
And in what might be a reference to his power to change federal regulations, he concluded that ‘I can only do what I can do.’
But he did say an appetite exists on Capitol Hill for ‘making sure that mentally unstable, seriously ill people aren’t carrying guns. And I’ve never seen the appetite as strong as it is now.’
But ‘I have not seen’ such a willingness to act ‘with regard to certain types of weapons,’ Trump concluded.
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