Trump Seems Hesitant to Pass Direct Gun Control
Jose Nino
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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, September 4, 2019, that he hopes to see quick legislative action to address recent mass shootings.
However, Politico reports that he “remained coy about what exactly he would support.”
The president reiterated that any form of gun control passed would have to be bipartisan in nature.
Trump also expressed optimism about Congress’ imminent return after a month-long recess, which he believes would bring an agreement “soon.”
He explained that he is looking into “many different concepts and many different things” in response to recent shootings, “including mental health which is, to me, a very important element of it.”
Among these plans is to re-open certain mental institutions.
“I’ve been having a lot of phone discussions and some meetings with different people in the Senate and the House of Representatives and we’ll be making some pretty good determinations pretty soon,” Trump said. “We’re in touch with a lot of different people; there are many proposals put forward — I heard 29 different proposals, so there’s no lack of proposals, so we’ll have to see what happens.”
To his credit, Trump did not quickly endorse the universal background bill that made its way out of the House a few months ago. This bill represented the largest gun control bill to pass out of any chamber of Congress since the passage of the Brady Act in the 1990s.
“If you look at some of — even the more severe and comprehensive ideas that are being put forward, it wouldn’t have stopped any of the last few years’ worth of these mass shootings,” Trump asserted.
So far, it looks like Trump won’t pass direct gun control measures.
However, gun activists will still have to hold him accountable in the next few months.
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