Trump Warns of Democrats’ ‘Ploy to Take Your Guns Away’ Amid Gun Control Push

As Congress ramps up debate about dealing with the nation’s gun violence epidemic, President Donald Trump remained optimistic a deal on gun control could be had, but not if Democrats use the effort as a “ploy to take your guns away.”

Standing on the White House lawn, the president said he had a “big meeting” on guns on Thursday, although he gave few specifics on what he would support.

“A lot of progress was made, I believe, on the background checks and various things having to do with guns,” Trump said. “We’re dealing with the Democrats and we’re dealing very well. It seems like they’d like to do something. I think I can speak for Republicans, they’d like to do something. We’ll see what can happen. We’re always protecting our Second Amendment. I want to make it clear.”

House Democrats passed universal background checks and red flag bills many months ago, but those bills have been stalled in the Senate because of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Those legislative efforts have gained new momentum, however, in the wake of horrific mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, El Paso and Odessa, Texas, over the summer. Still, McConnell has publicly refused to move forward on any gun control bills until Trump makes clear what kind of new gun control bills he would sign into law.

Despite this political reality, Trump tried to put the onus of progress on gun control on his rival party. He has promised to take action on strengthening background checks after previous gun massacres, only to reverse himself and do nothing.

“It depends really on the Democrats,” the president said when asked by a reporter about the odds of Washington taking action this time. “It depends on whether or not the Democrats want to take your guns away because there’s a possibility that this is just a ploy to take your guns away or whether or not it’s meaningful. If it’s meaningful we’ll make a deal. If this is movement by the Democrats to take your guns away then it’s never going to happen because we’re never going to let that happen. We will always be there for our Second Amendment. We’ll see. If the Democrats want to make a deal, we can make a deal.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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