Trump open to tougher gun background checks after Florida rampage

The New York Post ^ | 02/19/18 | Mark Moore

[Simon Green]

The White House signaled that President Trump would be open to bolstering gun background checks in the wake of a mass shooting at a Florida high school last week that rekindled the national debate about gun control.

The president spoke on Friday to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn about a bill the Texas Republican introduced with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) that would “improve federal compliance with criminal background check legislation,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Monday.

“While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system,” she said.

Cornyn and Murphy were among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who supported the background check bill introduced in November after a church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that left 26 people dead.

It’s the first indication that Trump would back a measure to bolster background checks.

In the days after 17 people were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, Fla., last Wednesday, Trump blamed mental illness and called on “neighbors and classmates” to report erratic behavior.

The White House also said Trump will host a “listening session” this Wednesday with high school students and teachers, but didn’t confirm that Parkland teens will be part of the discussion.

A group of students who survived the rampage also announced that they will hold a “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C., on March 24 to highlight the need for gun control.

Trump spent the three-day Presidents Day weekend at his resort in Mar-a-Lago, which is about 40 miles north of the school shooting site, and surveyed members about gun control laws, The Washington Post reported.

[Kickass Conservative]

The made up term “Assault Rifle” is whatever a Liberal thinks it is. My 10-22 Ruger would be called an Assault Rifle by a Liberal because every time I pull the Trigger is goes boom.

A more accurate term when describing the function of Military Arms is “Select Fire”.

A Machine Gun is “Automatic”.

[RJS1950]

Before we jump into that pit how about we consider strict enforcement (and a wall) to address the problem of death by illegals.

Just looking at one category, deaths caused by illegals, it is estimated that 3000+ Americans a year die as a result of illegals.

Rounding this to 3000 a year means that 8.2 citizens per day or 58 per week are killed by illegals who should not be here. This is a mass casualty catastrophe far outshadowing the occurrences of school shootings. Even if we take half of that count as being valid we have 29 deaths per week at the hand of illegals.

This is definitely a controllable problem that should be addressed before we discuss gun control which is a no-go from the start.

[Retvet]

Sounds right.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

E. Pluribus Unum :" So what check would have stopped this little pervert from getting a gun, seeing as the school district, as a matter of policy,
did not report his crime of bringing ammunition onto school grounds in a backpack
and as a matter of policy would not have reported any other crime he committed? "

In the matter of "Trayvon Martin vs George Zimmerman", the school district actively suppressed reporting criminal activity
because they didn't want the schools reputation tarnished.
Furthermore, a followup investigation by police was never conducted regarding stolen jewelry recovered from a backpack believed to have been taken from Trayvon earlier.
Schools in large metropolitan areas don't want to get a bad reputation, so many criminal incidents never even get reported to police.

[DivineMomentsOfTruth]

Nothing.. except Leftists Always take a good idea and turn it into a Commie/Fascist Agenda. They will make it more difficult for the good guys to own guns and easier for the bad guys to circumvent the law.

[null and void]

So you’re saying they replaced the “school to prison pipeline” with a “school to cemetery pipeline”?

Good job liberals, as always.

One might say “feelgood” job, liberals...

[Biggirl]

I remember a couple of months ago that on FR there was a thread about one USSC Justice, Kennedy, will be the next Justice to retire. That will open up a seat on the USSC for another conservative to be placed on the USSC by President Trump after this term is up. It is all about the Supreme Court.

[Captain Peter Blood]

How much more on back ground checks can you have to what is there right now?

Unless of course you find a way to link every database in the world and start denying permits for all manner of subjective criteria.

[null and void]

Catch-22LR.

If you want something that can fire a .22LR round, you are obviously crazy and can’t own a gun...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Every gun law on the books was placed there by the demands of Liberals, from 1968 till now. Every one of them was “guaranteed” to stop crime in it’s tracks. Every one failed.

So the cry is “MORE GUN CONTROL! MORE GUN CONTROL!”

[Lazamataz]

First-person shooter video games have proliferated since Columbine. I’m all for banning them and recalling all deployed media.

Request denied.

[smokingfrog]

Fix the existing background checks first.

[weezel]

Me too! Check their voter registration, if they are dim0s, turn them down. Check it out, all the mass shooters are dim0s.

[smokingfrog]

I had not heard about that. I also found it strange that this shooting happened so late in the day. I could see how someone might sneak in at the beginning of school with so many people coming and going. How long was he at the school before the shooting & how did he get in?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

See my post #119 for details

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3633355/posts?page=119#119

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I really don’t know for sure....perhaps the 39 visits by the police to the home for his disturbing behaviour?

It doesn't matter how strict the background check is if the reporting authorities take it upon themselves to give their suspects a pass.

http://www.ctguntalk.com/smf/index.php?topic=50239.66

Here’s Why Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Never Reported Nikolas Cruz to the Police

Nikolas Cruz was a known threat. Known by the administrators of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It’s a clear case where a known dangerous student was not reported to the police. Why?

Because back in 2013, the Broward County School Board adopted a program where they don’t relay information to police about troubled students.

NPR reported in Fla. School District Trying To Curb School-To-Prison Pipeline;

It’s a move away from so-called “zero tolerance” policies that require schools to refer even minor misdemeanors to the police. Critics call it a “school to prison pipeline.”

Under a new program adopted by the Broward County School District, non-violent misdemeanors — even those that involve alcohol, marijuana or drug paraphernalia — will now be handled by the schools instead of the police.

Cruz was banned from carrying a backpack at school after bullets were found in his backpack. Cruz was expelled from MSD last year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.

Non-violent misdemeanors? Even so, red flags were flying.

Again, the Broward County School Board has an official policy requiring that they don’t tell the police about non-violent incidents with troubled youth.

“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus,” Maths teacher Jim Gard told The Miami Herald.

Let’s look at a law that might cover that.

784.011 Assault. —

(1) An “assault” is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent.

(2) Whoever commits an assault shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

So another Liberal Feel Good program once again stepped in the way of the laws we have on the books being effective. Because last I checked, his actions of making threats to students and teachers constitutes assault.

It is possible that Nikolas Cruz would have been Baker Acted and received the needed medical attention he required before this all happened. But that wasn’t the case and sadly, 17 people lost their lives because of “feelz“.

[servo1969]

The killer in Florida would have passed any background check. Unless you intend to make buying a rifle require a security clearance.

[Oil Object Insp]

I am gobsmacked at the responses from some of the people of this thread. I’m not certain how many of the people posting are really trolls, but I would think on a place sick as FR people would be able to separate emotion from logical thought.

Shall not be infringed.

I always thought it was simple enough that any functioning individual could understand.

Shall not.

That means never. Under ANY circumstance.

The real issue that should be the touchstones (that isn’t being discussed) is personal accountability. I believe in ABSOLUTE freedom, however I realized it only works with a society that requires ABSOLUTE personal accountability.
The reason our country is in trouble is because we no longer require, (and haven’t for a long time) required people to be accountable.

1A explains a GOD given right to say ANYTHING you want. You want to yell fire in a theatre? Your allowed that, but you will be held accountable for doing so.

You want to own a cannon? Crew served artillery? Full on machine gun? 2A is suppose to promise that right. But your not of the hook for the responsibility of YOUR actions. Your also not responsible for anyone else’s.

We as a society could clear up all the wrongs if WE held ALL responsible for their individual actions.

Until we return to this, there will be no fix, just feel good bandages on a rotten corpse.
Deciding to plan a way to push the political arena into change, is a difficult thing.

[SecAmndmt]

Background checks don’t achieve anything except to motivate socialists to ask for yet more gun control.

I don’t support ANY background checks at all. If someone is too dangerous for a gun, they are also too dangerous for cars, knives, fists, planes, baseball bats etc.

[familyop]

"Ok, at the risk of being eviscerated because of lack of knowledge, what is wrong with tougher background checks?"

The system has been used in many cases in the recent past to allow judges and employees in various kinds of offices full discretion to have sane, law abiding veterans and other innocent people without felony convictions or active adjudications of severe mental incompetence barred from possessing weapons with no feasible remedy for legally obtaining weapons again.

The general tactic on the left is one of gathering voter compliance with barring various unpopular subgroups, one after another, until a critical mass of disarmed people will vote against the remainder.

Many political class people fail to realize how many Americans have already been barred from possessing firearms under threat of lengthy prison sentences. Many of the enormous number of people who are forbidden to possess any firearm or ammunition feel cheated by those who can legally posses firearms. Many of those who feel offended do wish to have everyone else barred from owning firearms as a kind of revenge. They welcome newcomers to their bandwagon.