By Carolyn Lochhead, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — With California Sen. Dianne Feinstein seated to his left, President Trump presided over a televised negotiating session Wednesday with 17 lawmakers from both parties, demanding they come together to produce “one terrific bill” on guns that would expand background checks and perhaps include Feinstein’s proposed ban on assault weapons.
Embracing gun limits that Democrats have pushed for years, Trump rebuffed high-profile Republican legislation, already passed by the House, that would allow people with gun permits in states that have almost no gun restrictions to carry concealed weapons into states such as California that have tougher gun laws.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) listen during a meeting with bipartisan members of the Congress at the Cabinet Room of the White HoAlex Wong / Getty Images
Trump accused lawmakers of being “petrified” of the National Rifle Association, boasting that he had told the organization’s top officials at a White House lunch Sunday that it was time “to stop this nonsense” after the shooting two weeks ago at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead.
“I’m the biggest fan” of the Second Amendment and the NRA, Trump said, calling the group “great patriots.” “But we don’t have to agree on everything,” he said.
“Don’t be shy,” Trump told the lawmakers, urging broad legislation focused on expanding the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to cover all commercial gun sales, a longtime objective of anti-gun activists. The system currently applies only to sales by licensed gun dealers, allowing buyers to evade a background check by purchasing weapons online or from unlicensed dealers at gun shows.
“It has to be very, very strong on background checks,” Trump said.
In 2013, Senate legislation along those lines by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., secured a 54-vote majority but fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage. Trump indicated that he thought the legislation should now be a central focus of lawmakers. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said he has 200 co-sponsors in the House for legislation that would accomplish the same thing.
Trump also reiterated his insistence that some teachers be armed, saying “gun-free zones” in places like schools invite mass shooters because such “cowards” know they won’t be shot themselves. He also said anyone suspected of mental illness who has guns should have them taken away immediately, before going through the courts.
“I don’t want mentally ill people to have guns,” Trump said, noting that law enforcement officials who encountered alleged Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz in the months before the high school killings saw that he had guns but could not confiscate them.
Lawmakers in both parties told Trump that he has unique credibility among gun owners to overcome GOP resistance that has blocked gun control legislation since Feinstein’s original 1994 assault weapons ban expired in 2004.
“There’s not a person in West Virginia who believes you’re not going to defend their Second Amendment rights. With your support it would pass,” Manchin told Trump, referring to his and Toomey’s background check bill.
Trump also directed lawmakers to consider Feinstein’s new assault weapons ban. “Dianne, add what you have also,” Trump told her. Feinstein’s face lit into a broad smile and she rubbed her hands in glee.
But later in the meeting, Trump stopped short of endorsing an assault weapons ban, saying criminals would simply turn to the black market to obtain the weapons.
Feinstein briefly recounted for Trump her experience becoming mayor of San Francisco in 1978 as a consequence of the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and being trained to use and carry a gun because of threats of violence against her during the 1970s.
Since then, Feinstein said she has witnessed “the development of weapons I never thought would leave the battlefield that are out on our streets,” including the AR-15 assault rifle used in the Florida shooting.
She then handed Trump a document asserting that her original assault weapons ban had worked, and urged Trump to read it.
“I will, I will,” Trump said.
Later, when Trump appeared to leave out an assault weapons ban when telling lawmakers where to focus their efforts, Feinstein interjected, “What do we do about weapons of war?”
“What you’re going to have to do is discuss it with everybody,” Trump said.
Still, Trump said, “Dianne you have some very good ideas,” adding more broadly to the lawmakers, “I’d rather have you come down on the strong side.”
He promised “an amazing vote” that would far exceed the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
“We want to pass something great,” he said. “I want a very strong counter punch.”
Carolyn Lochhead was the Washington correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she covered national politics and policy for 27 years. She grew up in Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County) and graduated from UC Berkeley cum laude in rhetoric and economics. She has a masters of journalism degree from Columbia University. Twitter: @carolynlochhead
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