White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that President Trump “still supports” raising the age limit for purchasing AR-15-style rifles following a weekend lunch with National Rifle Association leaders.
Trump will meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday to discuss gun control legislation, Sanders said during the daily White House press briefing, and raising the federal age limit from 18 to 21 will be on the table.
“We haven’t seen the legislation in form yet, and so we are not going to speak to potential legislation that doesn’t exist that may have a lot of nuanced language,” Sanders said about an age limit increase. “In concept, the president still supports it, but in terms of legislation, we need to see what that looks like before weighing in further.”
Sanders denied repeatedly that Trump would back-track on the higher age limit — which would reopen a constitutional debate on whether Congress can limit the Second Amendment rights of young adults — after a Sunday luncheon between Trump and NRA leaders Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox.
Trump said last week that he believed the NRA would not oppose the increased age limit, but the organization stands by its opposition.
“In terms of the concept there is still support for that, but how it would be implemented and what might look like is still very much part of that conversation,” Sanders said.
Trump said last week that he supports raising the legal age to buy AR-15s, which have been used in several mass shootings including the murder of 17 people at a Florida high school this month. Trump also said repeatedly that he would like to increase the use of background checks and prevent the mentally ill from buying guns, and that he would support state reform allowing teachers to carry guns.
Sanders did firmly commit to supporting legislation that would ban bump-stocks that allow semiautomatic guns to fire more rapidly. The devices were used to murder 58 people at a Las Vegas concert in October. She said if the Justice Department cannot find a way to administratively ban bump-stocks pursuant to a directive from Trump “we would support a legislative solution to complete that.”
