Trump echoes NRA's discussion on "background checks"

On August 7, after gunmen using semi-automatic weapons killed 31 people in two shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Donald Trump told reporters that he had been killed. he planned to respond to the recent outbreak of armed violence with new background checks.

"I am looking to do background checks," said Trump, without providing any details. "I think we can talk about background checks like never before … [Congress is] get closer to an invoice. "

"We need to have very significant background checks," he added.

What a difference two weeks makes. During a Q & A session with reporters Wednesday, Trump was completely reversed saying, "We already have a solid background check."

He also described the National Rifle Association – which spent $ 30 million to elect it – as if it looked like a branch of government on an equal footing, and made it the only one. This echoed NRA's arguments that any new gun control measure was "a slippery slope".

Pressed by a journalist on the fact that his "slippery slope" speech mimics the NRA's favorite gun control speech, he added, "No. This is a topic of Trump's discussion … we have a second amendment and our second amendment will remain strong. "

At another time, Trump was asked to consider the reality that 109 Americans are dying every day from armed violence as a public health emergency. He basically responded by saying that all deaths matter.

"I do, I do, I do, I do, and they die for a lot of other reasons, too. m said.

Trump's comments come a day after he allegedly called NRA chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, to inform him that he was no longer interested in legislation that would require an audit. universal antecedents for all firearms sales.

"He was convinced that we had already checked the background and that he was getting bored of it," said an informed source of the call to Elaina Plott, from the Atlantic. "He does not want to pursue it."

Answering journalists' questions Tuesday, Trump characterized Armed violence is a "mental problem", adding that "it is not the weapon that pulls the trigger, it is the person who supports it". But according to this logic, there is little reason to pass a law on gun control.

Trump has already done that

Trump's comments after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton were not the first time he claimed to be interested in background checks, but reversed the trend after the subject fell to the headlines. Immediately after a shootout at a high school in Parkland, Fla., Which killed 17 people in February 2018, Trump told a press conference: "There is a movement for something to be done. We want to be very powerful about background checks. "

But nothing came of it and, four months later, Trump was addressing the NRA: "Your second amendment rights are besieged. But they will never be, never besieged as long as I am your president. "

Last year and this month, Trump responded to the mass shootings by first proposing a vague "background check" legislation to give the impression that he is doing something. But then it goes slowly when armed violence is no longer in the news.

Even the gun control measures that Trump claims to support would not be enough.

The Trump administration has taken some steps to combat gun violence. At the end of last year, the administration issued a regulation prohibiting mogul stocks, which allowed semi-automatic weapons to look like submachine guns. The Las Vegas shooter used it in October 2017 to make the most deadly mass shot in the country's recent history. And in March 2018, Trump signed an expenditure bill that, as the Atlantic said, used "a combination of incentives and sanctions to entice federal agencies and forces. armed to download records into the firearms purchase background check system ".

None of these measures, however, were sufficient to prevent the El Paso and Dayton attacks. And even if Trump did everything possible to ensure that background checks were universal and that Congress sent a bill to his office, that would not be enough – as CNN's Holmes Lybrand explained, it is doubtful that background checks would have prevented El Paso and Dayton shooters from getting their weapons:

There is no indication that the shooting in Dayton, Ohio, would have been prevented by the universal background check proposal or by legislation to strengthen the federal system of background checks. The alleged gunman in El Paso, Texas purchased his firearm legally and there is no evidence that he had a criminal history that a background check would have been found.

And as a collective shootout that killed three people and wounded 15 others at the end of last month in Gilroy, California, state action is also inadequate. Although California has strong gun laws, the gunman simply went to Nevada and bought a WASR-10, a derivative of an AK-47, and then returned to the Bay Area with. This weapon, like those used in El Paso and Dayton, allows mass shooters to shoot 15 or more people in less than 30 seconds.

Trump, however, wants to talk about everything, apart from the federal action on high-powered guns. In recent days, he has sought to reformulate the El Paso and Dayton shootings as mental health problems – not to mention the fact that other countries have people with mental illnesses without having to be shot at. on a regular basis – and launched the idea of ​​building new institutions for mental health.

Trump no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt

CNN reported Wednesday that at least 27 people had been arrested for threatening mass shootings since the El Paso and Dayton shots. Unfortunately, in today's America, the question of the next mass shot is a question of when, not if.

Next time, Trump – who in the wake of Parkland has expressed his deep confusion about how easy it is to get high-powered guns – should not have the benefit of the doubt. His talk about "background checks" is just a lot of noise and fury intended to conceal the fact that he has no intention of doing nothing.

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