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| US President Donald Trump says he has spoken to leader of the National Rifle Association and their views should be fully represented in the debate over gun control (AFP Photo/MANDEL NGAN) |
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump said Friday that fellow Republicans will set aside resistance to restricting access to firearms by supporting background checks for people buying weapons in the wake of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas.
The
progress in efforts to curb the United States' freewheeling relationship with
firearms came despite talks between Trump and the head of the fierce NRA gun
lobby, Wayne LaPierre.
Republicans
have long resisted imposing background checks on gun buyers, a measure that the
powerful NRA argues would be the thin end of the wedge, leading to ever tighter
restrictions on the constitutional right to carrying weapons.
But after
31 people were shot dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, last weekend --
just the latest in an ever growing list of bloodbaths carried out by men with
powerful rifles -- political momentum has apparently shifted.
Trump said
that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was "totally
onboard" with background checks.
Even
"hardline" gun rights supporters in the Republican party
"understand we don't want insane people, mentally ill people, bad people,
dangerous people" buying firearms, Trump told reporters at the White
House.
He said
he'd spoken with LaPierre and had "a good talk."
But despite
describing the NRA as "phenomenal people" and insisting that no other
president has been more supportive of gun rights, Trump said "we need
meaningful background checks so that sick people don't get guns."
LaPierre on
Thursday had rejected calls for tougher restrictions on firearms, indicating
he'd raised those concerns with Trump.
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US Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says gun control legislation will be
"front and center" in the next session but he will not recall
senators from their
summer break (AFP Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)
|
"The
inconvenient truth is this: the proposals being discussed by many would not
have prevented the horrific tragedies in El Paso and Dayton," LaPierre
said in a statement.
No recall
of Congress
Democratic
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Trump to bring the Senate into session to
debate gun control legislation previously approved by House Democratic
lawmakers, including a bill passed in February mandating federal criminal
background checks.
"Commonsense
background checks are supported by more than 90 percent of the American people
and are proven to save lives," Pelosi wrote Thursday in a letter to the
president.
Backed by
than 200 US mayors who wrote to McConnell to demand that the Senate reconvene,
Pelosi evoked "an extraordinary moment in our history (that) requires all
of us to take extraordinary action."
But despite
the apparent shift in White House and Republican positions on the issue, Trump
and Senate leaders said there's no need to call legislators back from their
summer break.
"I
think we'll have a very good package by the time they come back," Trump
said.
Trump and
the Republicans also seem certain to oppose Democrats' call for banning assault
weapons -- the military style rifles commonly used in mass killings.
Gun
lobbyists argue that rifles like the AR-15 are hugely popular, legitimate
weapons for hunting and self-defense.
McConnell
has previously stifled congressional efforts to expand gun controls amid
Republicans' fears that they could suffer at ballot box in next year's
elections.
The El Paso
and Dayton shooters used semi-automatic weapons, which can be legally bought in
most US states, to mow down large numbers of people in minutes or even seconds.
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