Florida Sen. Marco Rubio moved today to give law enforcement and families the ability to confiscate guns from persons with severe mental illnesses.
The Republican lawmaker said he will be introducing legislation in the U.S. Senate that allows for ‘Gun Violence Restraining Orders’ that require a court order. The measure would also extend to the purchase of firearms.
‘And to be clear, the due process in such a situation would be on the front end, not on the back end,’ Rubio said in a floor speech on Thursday as he attempted to mitigate conservatives’ concerns that the measure would be an infringement on the Second Amendment.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio moved today to give law enforcement and families the ability to confiscate guns from persons with severe mental illnesses
The president created panic when told legislators, including Rubio, yesterday that firearms should be taken away from persons showing serious signs of mental illness before due process has been afforded to them.
‘Allow due process, so that no one’s rights are trampled,’ Vice President Mike Pence had said. ‘But the ability to go to court, obtain an order, and then collect not only the firearms, but any weapons in the possession of that individual.’
Trump replied, ‘Or, Mike, take the firearms first and then go to court, because that’s another system. Because a lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court, to get the due process procedures.
‘I like taking the guns early,’ the president added, ‘like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida. He had a lot of firearms. They saw everything. To go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.’
Republicans on Capitol Hill were shocked by Trump’s position.
According to The Weekly Standard, Sen. Jeff Flake’s immediate response was, ‘Uhh … Well, any proposal we put forward respects due process, so …’
Sen. Thom Tillis offered that Trump is ‘not a legal scholar’ and that’s probably not ‘exactly what he meant.’
‘I don’t think that he was saying that there’s a place where you suspend the Constitution and suspend due process. I just don’t believe that,’ Tillis said.
In a statement, GOP Sen. Ben Sasse ripped Trump for shifting his positions, depending on what was last said to him.
‘Strong leaders don’t automatically agree with the last thing that was said to them. We have the Second Amendment and due process of law for a reason,’ Sasse, who shares the same party with Trump but often counters him, said. ‘We’re not ditching any Constitutional protections simply because the last person the President talked to today doesn’t like them.’
Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox Business on Thursday morning that the president’s comments were specific to situations like the one involving the Parkland shooter, where red flags were either missed or ignored.
‘The president is saying that sometimes the process takes too long. He’s talking about a case such as this, which we hope is an extreme case, but we all should agree is a very tragic, if not avoidable, case,’ Conway stated.
The president created panic when told legislators, including Rubio, yesterday that firearms should be taken away from persons showing serious signs of mental illness before due process has been afforded to them
Rubio had pointed out in the meeting with Trump that states have the ability to pass gun confiscation laws, and some already have.
‘Hopefully, Florida will,’ Rubio asserted.
The Florida Republican said Thursday as he pushed the measure that it would take a comprehensive approach to making sure another tragedy like the one in his home state doesn’t happen including teacher and student training.
Rubio said he’d be supporting the Stop School Violence Act, which would put federal dollars toward school security programs.
He also announced his intent to dismantle the federal youth PROMISE program that empowers schools to keep information about potentially violent students from police so it doesn’t end up on the young person’s permanent record.
When it comes to background checks, the senator said he’d be backing a bipartisan bill, Fix NICS, that strengthens the existing rules. People who wrongfully obtain guns should also be prosecuted, he said, putting his weight behind ‘Lie and Try’ legislation and a bill that would punish gun-buyers and their surrogates for making what’s known as ‘straw purchases.’
Trump said Wednesday that he will be giving ‘very serious thought’ to signing legislation that lifts the minimum age for purchasing certain firearms like the AR-15 to 21.
The position is a serious split from the National Rifle Association, a major backer of Trump’s and most Republicans.
In the meeting, the president acknowledged that his posture wouldn’t be popular with the gun lobby, but he’ll be ‘giving it a lot of consideration’ anyway.
Rubio said Thursday from the Senate floor that he would also be willing to support legislation that introduces new age restrictions on semi-automatic rifles and limits magazine capacity.
‘These reforms do not enjoy the sort of widespread support in Congress that the other measures I’ve announced do,’ he said. ‘And in order to successfully pass, these ideas will have to be crafted in a way that actually contribute to greater public safety but also not unnecessarily or unfairly infringe on the 2nd Amendment right of all law abiding adults to protect themselves and their families, to hunt or to participate in recreational shooting.’
In closing, Rubio told his colleagues that ‘ultimately there are things that we can do that have widespread bipartisan support that we can act on, that we can get passed that can actually make a difference.
‘Do not hold hostage a piece of legislation that would work and that we all support because it doesn’t have everything you want,’ he warned them.
Appearing on CNN immediately after his remarks, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who lives in the same county as the Parkland shooting, called Rubio’s proposals a ‘distraction’ from the necessary gun controls that are needed to prevent another massacre.
An assault weapons ban, limits on magazines and closing the background check loophole have to be in new legislation, the Democratic congresswoman who used to chair her party’s national campaign arm said.
Wasserman Schultz also swatted down a Trump proposition to allow educators to carry concealed weapons.
‘That is an utterly ridiculous response. It is overwhelmingly opposed,’ she said. ‘The idea that we’d solve the problem of mass shootings in schools or anywhere is by introducing more guns into an environment, it defies credulity.’
Teachers should be focused on protecting students in those instances, she said, instead of ‘fumbling for a gun and be figuring out who they should be shooting.’