Washington
Trump directed the Justice Department to draft a ban on devices known as “bump stocks,” molded pieces of plastic or metal that can attach to a legal semiautomatic gun and allow it to fire up to 100 rounds in seven seconds, similar to an illegal machine gun.
In private, he has indicated that he might do more, telling advisers and friends in recent days that he is determined to push for some sort of gun-control legislation, according to people familiar with the conversations.
In one such discussion, during dinner with television commentator Geraldo Rivera at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., the president listened with interest as Rivera suggested raising the minimum age at which a person could buy a semiautomatic weapon from 18 to 21. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that the idea is “on the table for us to discuss.”
So far, Trump’s public stances have not crossed the agenda of the powerful pro-gun-rights National Rifle Association, which endorsed him during the 2016 Republican primary and spent more than $30 million supporting his candidacy and attacking his opponent in the general election, Hillary Clinton. But behind the scenes, Trump is floating ideas that could put him at odds with the NRA.
The NRA did not respond on Tuesday to a request for comment.
Trump’s attempt at a new tone on the gun issue comes as the politics surrounding the issue appear to be changing in the wake of the shooting last week in Parkland, Fla.
Students who survived the shooting are calling for increased gun control, and some have pledged not to return to class until changes are made. Meanwhile, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey released this week found that more than 6 in 10 Americans fault Congress and Trump for not doing enough to prevent mass shootings.
Trump plans to meet today with students, teachers and parents who were affected by mass shootings, including the one in Parkland. The group will also include people from the Washington area who have not experienced a mass shooting.
“We’re working very hard to make sense of these events,” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. “I met with some of the survivors and their families, and I was moved — greatly moved, greatly moved — by their strength, their resilience. … We must do more to protect our children. We have to do more to protect our children.”
Bipartisan action has been elusive following previous mass shootings, including some of the deadliest rampages in modern U.S. history. Following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut — in which 20 children and six adults were gunned down — an effort to expand background checks and ban certain rifles failed in Congress. The NRA refused to endorse the bill, scuttling its chances in the Senate by putting pressure on Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats who faced reelection that year and ultimately voted against the legislation.
Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., who spearheaded that unsuccessful bipartisan agreement, said Tuesday that he plans to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would expand background checks on firearm purchases.
The White House said on Monday that Trump supports efforts to “improve the federal background check system.”
“Bump stocks” were not used in last week’s shooting in Florida, according to a law enforcement official.
But the issue gained notice after more than 58 people were killed in October at a country music festival in Las Vegas, where authorities said the shooter was armed with 14 AR-15s with bump stocks along with other firearms.
The NRA said that it would support more regulation of bump stocks, but it opposed legislative action. Republican lawmakers punted the issue to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which said it cannot regulate bump stocks unless Congress changes the law.
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump signed a memorandum that directed the Justice Department “to dedicate all available resources to complete the review of the comments received, and, as expeditiously as possible, to propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns.”