Trump Administration Now More Opposed to Gun Control Than NRA • ‘We All Need to Take a Step Back’ White House Says, Warns of Making ‘Rash Decisions’
In what many see as a major reversal the NRA has just announced it supports regulating “bump stocks,” the devices that essentially transfigure semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, and currently are legally for sale. The madman who killed 59 people and wounded 527 others in Las Vegas Sunday night used the devices on several of the more than two dozen firearms he had in his hotel.
“In the aftermath of the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas, the American people are looking for answers as to how future tragedies can be prevented,” Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s EVP said in a statement. “The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.”
The NRA does not want additional legislation but wants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives to see if current regulations could be used.
This move should make it easier for Congress to pass legislation outlawing the devices, which allow semi-autoimatic weapons to shoot at least nine rounds a second.Â
But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to support the move by the NRA, instead offering a word salad response to a reporter’s question:
The administration’s focus is on “healing and uniting the country,” Huckabee Sanders said. She noted the White House wants input from lawmakers, law enforcement officials, members of the victims’ families, policy makers, and organizations.
“We know that members of both parties and multiple organizations are planning to take a look at bump stocks and related devices,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded, saying “we certainly welcome” the conversation around the devices.
“We want to be part of that discussion,” Huckabee Sanders added. “We’re certainly open to that moving forward.”
“At this point in the process, I think we all need to take a step back,” she continued. “Before we can run out and start talking about the preventions…we have to determine what caused it. We haven’t gotten that far down the road,” as the Washington Examiner noted.
When pressed, Huckabee Sanders said the White House does not want to make “rash decisions” while investigations are going on.Â
In short, the White House is wholly unprepared and uninterested in addressing the issue of gun violence in any manner.
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