President Trump will discuss gun control legislation Wednesday with 17 lawmakers, including shooting victim and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and the sponsors of a background check reform bill that has so far failed to move in the Senate.
Ten Republicans and seven Democrats will take part in the meeting, according to the White House.
Scalise, R-La., responded to the mass-murder of 17 people this month at a Florida high school by encouraging a focus on mental health and addressing law enforcement failings. Scalise and three others were shot at a Republican baseball practice last year in a politically motivated attack.
Other meeting participants include Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the sponsors of unsuccessful legislation in 2013 that would have expanded the type of gun seller that would be required to perform background checks.
The Manchin-Toomey effort, which sought to exempt some private gun transfers from required checks, such as those among family members, failed in 2013 when 54 senators voted for it, six short of what was needed to advance the bill.
After the Florida shooting, Trump endorsed a wide range of reforms, including raising the federal purchase age for AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, and tightening background checks with a focus on mental health.
Trump also ordered the Justice Department to take action to ban “bump stocks,” which allow AR-15s to fire more rapidly and were used to murder 58 people at a Las Vegas concert in October. The White House said it would support legislative action if it can’t be done administratively.
Trump also endorsed the idea of arming teachers who are capable of using weapons to defend their students and bringing back insane asylums, an idea that alarmed gun control advocates.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said repeatedly this week that Trump still supports raising the legal purchase age for AR-15, though she would not commit to seeing the reform added into legislation.
In a Wednesday statement, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Trump will meet the lawmakers “for an open discussion as he continues to receive feedback on the issue of school safety after the tragic events that took place in Parkland, Florida two weeks ago.”
Other meeting participants at Wednesday’s meeting are Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Steve Daines, R-Mont., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Attendees from the House of Representatives are Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Ted Deutch, D-Fla., Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., Brian Mast, R-Fla., Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and John Rutherford, R-Fla.
