Donald Trump is weighing expanding background checks on gun purchases as pressure increases on Republicans after two mass shootings this weekend killed 31 people.
‘Serious discussions are taking place between House and Senate leadership on meaningful Background Checks,’ the president tweeted Friday morning.
President Trump also acknowledged the possible political costs of such a move – which would infuriate the conservative Republican base headed into an election year – by noting he’s spoken to the NRA about the issue and claiming he is ‘the biggest second amendment person there is.’
NRA President Wayne LaPierre has reportedly warned the president any such move would anger his supporters.
‘I have also been speaking to the NRA, and others, so that their very strong views can be fully represented and respected,’ Trump wrote.
‘Guns should not be placed in the hands of mentally ill or deranged people. I am the biggest Second Amendment person there is, but we all must work together for the good and safety of our Country. Common sense things can be done that are good for everyone!,’ he added.
Donald Trump is weighing expanding background checks on gun purchases
The president has been reaching out to all sides on the issue as the White House explores its next steps.
Trump has spoken to Senate Republican Leader McConnell, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, and LaPierre this week.
The NRA said it opposes any legislation that ‘unfairly infringes upon the rights of law-abiding citizens.’
‘I can confirm that the NRA opposes any legislation that unfairly infringes upon the rights of law-abiding citizens,’ LaPierre said in a statement Thursday.
He called many of the proposals out there ‘”soundbite solutions” which fail to address the root of the problem, confront criminal behavior, or make our communities safer.’
Trump and LaPierre have spoken several times this week and the NRA president warned him expanded background checks would not be popular among Trump’s supporters, officials told The Washington Post.
The president is arguing he can convince the conservative, red-meat Republican base that the moment for change has arrived, The New York Times reported.
‘There is a great appetite, and I mean a very strong appetite, for background checks. And I think we can bring up background checks like we’ve never had before,’ Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday before he left for visits in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio – the site of the weekend’s mass shootings.
In November of last year, when 13 people were killed at a bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Trump contemplated requiring ‘registration’ of fire arms but conceded it would be ‘hard’ to get through.
‘I understand both sides of it very, very well but the one side is a little bit naive. You know? Let’s get rid of all your guns, because the bad guys are gonna have the guns, you know?,’ he told the authors of Politico’s Playbook at the time in an interview for their book ‘The Hill to Die On.’
‘What I do see is registration, certainly mental illness, that is a big thing, but that’s hard,’ he said in the interview, which the authors published for the first time on Friday.
In a sign the party is feeling pressure to do something, McConnell signaled he would be open to considering the idea.
The Republican leader said he would not bow to pressure and call the Senate back into session – a demand Democrats have made.
‘If we did that we’d just have people scoring points and nothing would happen,’ McConnell told a Kentucky radio station. ‘There has to be a bipartisan discussion here of what we can agree on. If we do it prematurely it will just be another frustrating experience for all of us and for the public.’
He did say that background checks would be ‘front and center’ when Congress returns to Washington D.C. in September.
‘There is a lot of support for that,’ McConnell said. ‘The president called me this morning about this. … He’s anxious to get an outcome and so am I, and I believe the Democrats will have to admit it’s better to get a result than just engage in this sort of endless point-scoring that has the tendency to occur after one of these awful, awful incidents.’
NRA President Wayne LaPierre has reportedly warned the president expanded background checks would anger his supporters
President Trump and NRA President Wayne LaPierre – seen here at the White House together in February 2017 – have spoken several times this week
Bipartisan legislation from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey would expand background checks to private and online sales.
Trump spoke to both Manchin and Toomey after the shootings but the NRA opposes their legislation.
McConnell is unlikely to bring any legislation to the Senate floor without the Republican support it would need to pass. It’s unclear if the Manchin-Toomey bill can get that.
House Democrats passed legislation in February that would require background checks for all firearms sales, including those purchased online and at gun shows.
At the time Trump vowed to veto the measure.
Pelosi and Schumer are pressing for the Senate to pass that legislation.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled he is open to expanding background checks
‘We spoke to the President separately this afternoon and told him the best way forward to address gun violence in our country is for Leader McConnell to let the Senate take up and pass the House-passed universal background checks legislation and for the President to sign it into law,’ they said in a joint statement on Thursday.
‘The President gave us his assurances that he would review the bipartisan House-passed legislation and understood our interest in moving as quickly as possible to help save lives,’ the Democratic leaders added.