Trump Reportedly Telling People He’s Determined to Push For Gun-Control Legislation
President Donald Trump has expressed his openness to measures that would restrict access to guns in private conversations, according to a number of reports out Wednesday.
Jonathan Swan reported for Axios that the president has “told associates that he doesn’t think high school kids should be able to buy guns, and is open to the idea of imposing a minimum purchase age of 21 for guns like those used in the Florida high school massacre.”
Trump’s reported reassessment of the gun control issue comes a week after a 19-year-old opened fire at a South Florida high school with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 and wounding more than a dozen others. The teen had an arsenal of ten rifles, some bought illegally. Survivors of the massacre have been vocal in their cries for gun control legislation, calling out Trump and the Republican-controlled House to act.
Swan cautioned in his report that Trump’s conversations have been “relatively loose and open-ended so far,” and that no decisions have been made.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post also reported that Trump has “signaled an openness to modest gun-control measures following what he called an ‘evil massacre'” in Florida.
On Tuesday, Trump announced he was directing the Justice Department to draft a ban on “bump stocks,” the device used by the Las Vegas shooter to allow a legal semiautomatic gun to fire at the rate of an illegal machine gun.
“In private, he has indicated that he might do more,” the Post reports, “telling advisers and friends in recent days that he is determined to push for some sort of gun-control legislation.”
Whether or not the president’s desires will be reigned in by diehard second amendment Republicans in the House, or the ever-looming NRA, remains to be seen.
[image via screengrab]
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