The president’s call on Wednesday to pass a comprehensive background check bill in Congress was met back on Capitol Hill with elation from proponents and skepticism from critics, many of them Republicans who question whether such a measure could ever pass.
“It could be a mess,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, following a White House meeting on gun safety he attended along with other lawmakers, which was fully televised. “It would depend how it is written.”
The president’s endorsement, which comes in the wake of the recent deadly high school shooting in Florida, has added fuel to stalled efforts to pass any bill that enhances or bolsters the background check system for gun purchases.
Trump also called on Congress to “give very serious thought,” to raising the age from 18 to 21 for assault-style gun purchases.
Back at the Capitol, however, few Republicans were enthusiastically endorsing Trump’s proposals.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is opposed to expanding background checks and said the current system is already plagued with due process problems that wrongly prevent individuals from purchasing guns, told the Washington Examiner after watching the meeting, “You certainly can’t have bureaucrats taking away people’s Second Amendment rights.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Examiner the president needs to put his proposal in writing rather than simply instructing lawmakers to pass something.
Trump told lawmakers to go back to the Capitol and work out “some beautiful foundation,” for legislation that could be expanded or narrowed. He even suggested a vote on an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to ban assault style weapons including the AR-15 rifle used in the most recent attack at a high school in Parkland.
“I’m not going to say anything until I get a detailed outline from the White House about what they actually are for,” Graham said. “My advice to the White House is put to pen and pad what you want. Then I can tell you whether or not I agree with it.”
Trump, who met with lawmakers in the cabinet room, told them he favored a bill by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would expand the current background check law to include unlicensed gun show dealers and internet sales.
Trump called for adding the language to the Fix NICS bill, sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that would bolster reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.
“I like a merger,” Trump told lawmakers. “Because I think the merger works out better.”
Toomey, following the meeting, said Trump’s endorsement gives his measure a better shot at gaining support after languishing in the Senate for years.
“This is the clearest I have ever heard the president in his support of broadening background checks, strengthening the background check system and specifically praising Manchin-Toomey as a model of how to do that,” Toomey said. “The way I take it is, the president’s commitment and passion for this is going to remain and, over time, can move votes.”
Toomey said he expected lawmakers to follow the advice given by Trump, who told him to meet with Cornyn, Murphy, and Manchin to work out a deal on the matter.
Cornyn wants to pass Fix NICS by itself, but Democrats, including Murphy, say the recent shooting merits expanding the measure to at least include universal background checks.
Trump during the meeting chided Republicans and said they are fearful of the NRA, the nation’s largest gun lobby.
Murphy said Trump can help move a vote on universal background checks by calling individual members, and perhaps continuing to taunt them.
“If the president is committed to continuing to call Republicans who oppose common sense gun measures cowards who are afraid of the NRA, we can make some progress,” Murphy said.
Murphy and Toomey both said Wednesday that the latest shooting, which killed 17 people, mostly students, has provided new momentum for legislation that may have seemed impossible to pass just a few years ago.
“The ground has shifted,” Murphy said.
A path to clearing any gun control bill in Congress, however, has not materialized.
The House passed the Fix NICS bill in December, but only after Republicans attached a measure providing reciprocity for concealed carry gun permit holders, which is a nonstarter with Democrats in the Senate, who can filibuster a bill.
Conservative leaders told the Washington Examiner they would only consider the Fix NICS bill without the reciprocity if due process problems are addressed.
A group of lawmakers are working on due process language with Cornyn but haven’t gotten what they want yet.
The addition of universal background checks to the Fix NICS bill would make it even harder for House Republicans to accept the measure.
And it may not even make it through the Senate, where many red-state Republicans have little interest in expanding background checks.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he does not favor legislating more gun control, pointing out that local and federal law enforcement officials did nothing to stop the shooter despite many warnings.
Kennedy said he will not even back Cornyn’s Fix NICS bill if the due process provisions are not worked out.
“I don’t think we need more gun control laws,” Kennedy said.
Democrats who returned to the White House from the meeting were buoyed by Trump appearing to take their side.
A combined Fix NICS and universal background check measure is exactly what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been demanding in recent days.
Trump endorsed the plan on live television, too, they noted.
“I don’t know how much clearer he could have been,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said “And the whole country can watch it.”
Al Weaver contributed to this report.
