On 5th Anniversary of Sandy Hook Massacre White House Can’t Offer Even One Idea to Help Prevent Future Mass Shootings

Huckabee Sanders says, “in terms of a specific policy that we are moving forward with that would have prevented that, I’m not aware what that would be.”

On the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, during which 20 first grade students and six officials were slaughtered, the Trump White House admitted its is at a complete loss as to how it could help prevent future mass shootings. 

Asked Thursday afternoon what President Trump has done “to try to protect the American people against a similar type of massacre,” at Sandy Hook and at the nation’s deadliest mass shooting in Las Vegas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders drew a blank. She then pivoted to “protecting” the American people from immigration, because the Trump administration equates immigrant with violence.

“One of the areas that the President has been outspoken about, not necessarily to those two instances but more broadly speaking in terms of national security and protecting individuals, certainly through border security, stronger vetting processes, and looking at whether or not there are other regulations that we can put in place that would offer protection,” Huckabee Sanders offered, as Talking Points Memo’s Matt Shuham reports.

It’s ironic that less than one hour later President Trump would hold a theatrical press event showing how his administration has dramatically cut regulations across the board. 

CBS News reporter Margaret Brennan, who had asked Huckabee Sanders the question, had to remind the press secretary the question was about mass shootings on U.S. soil.

“These were domestic shooters,” she said.

Huckabee Sanders finally attempted to answer the question on gun violence, which kills 93 Americans every day. 

 “Whether or not there is a regulation that could be put in place or not that could have prevented those things, frankly, I’m not aware of what that would be.”

And, “I don’t think there is any one thing that you could do that could have prevented either one of those instances, horrible, horrible tragedies.” 

Brennan was forced to say, “I mean, this is the worst shooting on U.S. soil on President Trump’s watch.”

Huckabee Sanders replied, “I understand that, and that’s why I think you have to take these matters obviously very seriously. But if you could name a single thing that would have prevented both of these I would love to hear it because I don’t know what that would look like.”

Brennan tried one last time: “An assault weapons ban, any kind of regulation, any kind of mental health concern? The President specifically mentioned that as a possibility?” 

Sanders dodged yet again. 

“I know that they are looking at some of the mental health issues, it’s something the President has raised before. But in terms of a specific policy that we are moving forward with that would have prevented that, I’m not aware what that would be.”

The White House has now said they can’t think of a single action, not a single thing, they “don’t know” what it would look like, they have no idea what they could do to help reduce the killing of 93 Americans every single day.

Words like “reducing the gun show loophole,” “strengthening background checks,” “ensuring the FBI has sufficient resources to maintain the background check database,” “banning assault weapons,” “banning bumpstocks,” “reducing the number of bullets a magazine can hold,” “creating a registry for bullets,” “mandating gun owners have insurance,” “requiring guns to have already available safety technology” – none of these words came to mind. 

The Trump administration ministration has just admitted it isn’t even thinking about how to prevent one of the top killers of Americans. Hasn’t given it a thought.

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