Trump to ‘take care’ of gun law reforms

Donald Trump condemns white supremacy and calls for mental illness “red flag” law to tighten gun laws.

Mourners embrace at a vigil for the victims of mass murderer Connor Bretts in Dayton, Ohio. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump has sharply condemned white supremacy and pledged a new focus on disrupting online mass-shooter plots, but he didn’t unveil major gun-control proposals, in his first formal remarks to the nation since back-to-back attacks over the weekend.

As the nation reels from mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio that left at least 31 dead, a somber Mr Trump vowed resolve in the face of what he called an “evil contagion.”

Speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Mr Trump said: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated.”

President Trump makes a statement on the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings https://t.co/sO8OghRfto

— TIME (@TIME) August 5, 2019

While Mr Trump nodded to bipartisan cooperation on gun violence in his speech, his proposals were focused on limiting access to guns for people with mental illnesses, not the broader restrictions Democrats have sought. He stopped short of calling for major legislation to limit the sale of firearms in the US and didn’t mention a call he made earlier Monday on Twitter for lawmakers to come together to work on “strong background checks” possibly coupled with immigration reform.

Democrats accused the president of backpedaling on background checks and called for the Republican-controlled Senate to approve legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled House earlier this year.

“It took less than three hours for the president to back off his call for stronger background check legislation,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) in a joint statement. “When he can’t mention guns while talking about gun violence, it shows the president remains prisoner to the gun lobby.”

A House bill that passed in February requires background checks for nearly all gun sales, with narrow exemptions, ensuring that buyers would be vetted for almost all private sales online and at gun shows. Currently, federal laws require the checks only for sales by federally licensed dealers, though some states have added their own requirements.

The shootings have left authorities searching for how to confront the challenges posed by mass violence and domestic terrorism in the social-media age. The president highlighted those concerns, calling for an end to the what he called the “glorification of violence” in video games and saying the internet and social media have provided a dangerous pathway to radicalization.

Mr Trump said the White House has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify the additional resources agents need “to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”

He also said he had directed the Justice Department to propose legislation to ensure those who commit hate crimes and mass murders face the death penalty. And he called for overhauling mental-health laws to “better identify mentally disturbed individuals” provide treatment, and if necessary, more involuntary confinement.

“Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun,” the president said.

Mr Trump didn’t offer specifics on his call to restrict access to firearms to those deemed a grave risk to public safety. He also endorsed red-flag laws, which have been adopted by more than a dozen states and are aimed at temporarily blocking dangerous people from accessing firearms. Such laws are supported by some Republicans in the Senate. He also noted that his administration had outlawed bump stocks, devices used to increase the rate of fire of weapons.

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal said Monday they had reached an agreement on a framework for a new statute that would provide grants and other incentives to states to enable law-enforcement authorities and courts to take away a gun in the event of a risk of danger to the gun’s owner or another person. Mr Blumenthal said they would introduce the legislation “in the very near future.”

Mr Graham said in a statement that he had spoken with the president about the proposal Monday morning and that Mr Trump was “very supportive.” Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) also released a joint statement Monday saying they had both separately discussed with the president their plan for strengthening background checks, and said Mr Trump had “showed a willingness to work with us” on the issue.

The Toomey-Manchin legislation is narrower than the House background-checks bill that passed earlier this year. The Senate measure would require background checks for gun-show sales and some private transactions.

Mr Toomey also said he had spoken with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and urged him to hold a vote on the bill, which narrowly failed in 2013. Mr McConnell has opposed the measure in the past; his office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Trump’s comments about white supremacy were his strongest to date. The shooting in El Paso is being investigated as a possible hate crime, as authorities scrutinize an anti-immigrant manifesto purportedly penned by the suspect that described a potential mass shooting as a response to an “invasion of Texas” by Hispanic immigrants.

Mr Trump didn’t address Democratic criticism that his own rhetoric on immigration has potentially encouraged violence. The president’s defenders have said he should not be blamed for mass shootings, which have been a problem for decades.

Mr Trump has described an invasion at the border in more than half a dozen tweets this year, and in a May statement issued by the White House said “hundreds of thousands of people coming through Mexico” had invaded the US

As he closed, Mr Trump incorrectly referred to a different Ohio city than where the Sunday shooting occurred. “May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo,” he said.

Mr Trump’s call earlier in the day to possibly couple background checks and immigration reform wasn’t followed by any proposal by the White House. Such a move could be challenging in the politically divided Congress. Both are complex issues with little bipartisan agreement.

The president previously expressed support for strengthening the federal background-check system for firearms after the 2018 shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school, though he later appeared to back away from that position after meeting with the National Rifle Association. The White House has threatened to veto legislation passed this year by the Democratic House broadening background checks.

The White House hasn’t said if Mr Trump will travel to Ohio or Texas, but did announce that a planned trip to Florida set for Tuesday has been postponed.

The Wall St Journal