President Trump’s easy, cordial relationship with the NRA began to fray Thursday. During a sit-down meeting at the White House, Trump threw his support behind gun control advocates, enraging the gun rights group.
“While today’s meeting made for great TV, the gun control proposals discussed would make for bad policy that would not keep our children safe,” NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said in a statement.
“Instead of punishing law-abiding gun owners for the acts of a deranged lunatic our leaders should pass meaningful reforms that would actually prevent future tragedies.”
Wednesday’s meeting was stunning because Trump seemingly overthrew years of Republican thought on gun control and committed to efforts that Democrats have been angling for years.
The meeting happened amidst the background of intense public scrutiny on the nation’s existing gun laws.
“Doing everything we can as a nation to address the problem of dangerous people committing heinous acts is not inconsistent with the Second Amendment – the systemic failures of government to keep us safe reinforces the need for the Second Amendment,’ Baker said.
“We will continue to support legislative efforts to make our schools and communities safe and oppose gun control schemes that cannot keep us safe and only punish law-abiding Americans.”
The NRA believes that Trump went too far. He didn’t just endorse sensible gun control laws, he went so far as to talk about instituting an assault rifle ban. “Some of you people are petrified of the NRA,” told a stunned group of Congressmen.
Democrats used the opportunity to plead for their agenda.
“There is no other issue out there with the American public like background checks. Ninety-seven percent of Americans want universal background checks. And yet we can’t get it done, there’s nothing else like that. Where it works, people want it and we can’t do it,” Sen. Chris Murphy said.
President Trump enthusiastically agreed.
(Source: Daily Mail)