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Trump and N.R.A. Leaders to Discuss Preventing Gun Sales to People on Terror Watchlists Trump and N.R.A. Leaders to Discuss Preventing Gun Sales to People on Terror Watch Lists
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump seemed to modulate his position on Second Amendment protections on Wednesday, saying in a Twitter message that he would be meeting with the National Rifle Association to discuss preventing individuals on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns. WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that people on the terror watch list should be barred from buying firearms, putting himself in the center of a gun-control debate in Congress revived by the worst mass shooting in United States history.
“I will be meeting with the N.R.A., who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns,” Mr. Trump wrote Wednesday morning. The N.R.A. said it would be happy to meet with Mr. Trump in a Twitter post of its own. Mr. Trump’s stance, expressed in a Twitter post, departs from the positions of the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association, whose endorsement Mr. Trump frequently boasts about on the campaign trail. His tweet could be read to support measures pushed by Democrats and opposed by Republicans in Congress, reflecting the unusual nuances of the issue, which touches on public safety and civil rights beyond the Second Amendment.
Mr. Trump frequently boasts of his endorsement from the N.R.A., which he said came earlier for him than any other Republican presidential candidate. “I will be meeting with the N.R.A., who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns,” Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, wrote Wednesday morning on Twitter. His comment came three days after 49 people were killed when a gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State stormed an Orlando nightclub.
His message, which came after 49 people were shot and killed on Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., seemed to echo a measure that congressional Democrats were planning to take up this week that would seek to prevent individuals on the government’s terror watchlist from purchasing guns. On the same morning, a group of Democrats took to the Senate floor in a filibuster to protest the lack of improvement in gun safety measures in recent years.
In a speech on Monday in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump addressed the Orlando massacre in more fiery terms, dismaying some of his own supporters as he called for an expansion of his proposal to bar Muslim immigrants. Mr. Trump advocated barring immigrants from any nation with “a proven history of terrorism,” and said that Muslim-Americans could be held accountable for domestic acts of terrorism if they failed to turn in their neighbors. “I’ve had enough,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who spoke on and off for about six hours on Wednesday. “I couldn’t just come back to the Senate this week and pretend like this is business as usual.”
While campaigning, Mr. Trump also frequently talks of how more guns — not less — could have helped prevent mass shootings like the one in San Bernardino, Calif., last December that killed 14 people and wounded 22. Mr. Trump contends that if people had guns to shoot back, the killers might not have tried the attack or would have injured fewer people. The killings were carried out by a couple who were inspired by terrorists abroad. The Democratic legislation, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, would seek to prevent individuals on the government’s terror watch list from purchasing guns on the recommendation of the Justice Department alone. Ms. Feinstein unsuccessfully proposed a similar measure last year, after 14 people were killed by an Islamic extremist couple in San Bernardino, Calif.
During a Republican debate in January, when asked about the San Bernardino attack, Mr. Trump explicitly said then that he did not believe there were any circumstances in which the nation should limit the sale of guns, of any kind. The legislation she is now proposing goes even further, covering not just people on the watch list at the time of purchase, but anyone who had been on the list in the preceding five years. The Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, had been on the list but was removed after an F.B.I. investigation turned up no evidence that he was plotting any crimes.
Mr. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. N.R.A. officials said on Twitter that they would be happy to meet with Mr. Trump, but that the group had not changed its position: withholding guns from people on the terrorist watch list, which at one point in 2014 had 800,000 names on it, the vast majority of whom have not been charged with a crime, would give the government too much power to deny people of their Second Amendment right.
In Congress, Republicans and Democrats were meeting to discuss how to address the gap in current law that allows some people on terrorist watchlists to purchase guns. The group has supported a competing measure put forward by congressional Republicans, led by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, that would prohibit gun sales to suspected terrorists — but only if federal prosecutors could demonstrate probable cause to a judge within three days of the purchase. Democrats say that burden is too high.
The fight over tightening gun laws has taken on urgency after the shootings in Orlando, with signs that some Republicans were willing to compromise on long-held opposition to gun restrictions. “The N.R.A. believes that terrorists should not be allowed to purchase or possess firearms, period,” said Chris W. Cox, the executive director of the group’s Institute for Legislative Action, in a statement. “At the same time, due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed.”
In the Senate, Democrats also plan to seek increased funding for the F.B.I. in a challenge to Republicans who have sought to stem domestic spending. Mr. Trump’s campaign did not clarify Wednesday how far his proposal would go or articulate which of the dueling measures — Mr. Cornyn’s and or Ms. Feinstein’s — Mr. Trump most agrees with.
Congressional Democrats have pledged to force votes on a measure that would seek to ban gun sales to anyone listed a government terror watchlist, or suspected of ties to terror groups. The measure, which Republicans have criticized, would leave the decision on prohibiting a sale to federal law enforcement officials. Democrats were not counting on Mr. Trump’s support and almost seemed not to want it. They have been more than happy to associate him with the N.R.A., which Democrats view as the biggest obstacle to gun control. Asked about the coming meeting between Mr. Trump and the group, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, said, “Well, he should go spend more time with them.”
Republicans, in turn, have put forward a measure that would prohibit gun sales to suspected terrorists — but only if federal prosecutors could demonstrate probable cause before a judge within three days of the purchase. Democrats say that burden is too high and the Republican measure, sponsored by Senator John Cornyn of Texas, would be pointless. Republicans are under pressure to show some action in response to the Orlando shooting, and Mr. Cornyn said on Wednesday evening that he was working with Ms. Feinstein on a potential compromise. But Ms. Feinstein, speaking to reporters after a classified briefing on the Orlando shooting that Mr. Cornyn also attended, said she doubted a deal would be reached.
Both Mr. Cornyn’s measure and the Democrats’ proposal, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, failed in December. As for Mr. Trump’s role, she was dismissive. “Oh, Trump just makes everything worse,” Ms. Feinstein said.
Republicans on Wednesday expressed confidence that their proposal could win passage, while Democrats said they expected their own measure would be blocked by the Republican majority. During the primaries Mr. Trump, who is a gun owner, spoke often about his affinity for guns as a way to prove his conservatism. He is in step with the N.R.A. on virtually all other gun issues, including his opposition to a ban on assault weapons.
Neither measure would necessarily have stopped the Orlando assailant, Omar Mateen, from buying guns. Though Mr. Mateen had been on a watchlist, he was removed after federal investigators found no evidence of any crime. Ms. Feinstein’s current proposal would block gun sales to anyone on the terror watchlist within the last five years, to address situations like the one in Orlando. “By the way, I’m going to save your Second Amendment,” he said Wednesday at a rally in Atlanta.
A group of Senate Democrats demanded action on Wednesday morning to combat gun violence in the wake of Sunday’s shooting in Orlando. Senator Christopher S. Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who pressed for reforms after the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn., said he would speak “as long as I can,” dominating the floor to make a point about the lack of movement on gun safety measures in recent years. As he has after other mass shootings, Mr. Trump said Wednesday that more gun ownership was the answer, not less. He said that the carnage could have been minimized “if some of those great people that were in that club that night had guns strapped to their waist or strapped to their ankle, and if the bullets were going in the other direction.”
“I’ve had enough,” he said, “and I couldn’t just come back to the Senate this week and pretend like this is business as usual.” Actual floor debate on any of the proposals in Congress was not expected until Thursday at the earliest, and would depend in part on whether Democrats relented in their filibuster.
By midafternoon, several more Democrats had joined the effort as it stretched into its fifth hour, having started with just Mr. Murphy and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and Mr. Murphy’s primary partner in pushing for gun safety, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey. Mr. Murphy was aided by a large cast of Democrats but especially his fellow Connecticut senator, Richard Blumenthal, as well as Cory A. Booker of New Jersey and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the minority whip.
Democrats said their proposal on F.B.I. financing would provide an additional $190 million including $175 million for the F.B.I.’s counterterrorism efforts and $15 million for law enforcement training in active-shooter situations. The proposal would push funding for the F.B.I. to a level that is $73 million above President Obama’s budget request. They yielded briefly for questions from Republicans but otherwise talked incessantly about the need for tighter gun control. By early evening, the Democrats brought out a poster showing photographs of victims of the Orlando shooting. Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, stood next to the poster, reading out the victims’ names and speaking about their lives.
Republicans stepped up their criticism of Mr. Obama for failing to contain the Islamic State. A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said that the speech-making by Democrats was merely delaying the consideration of the gun-related measures, as well as proposals on F.B.I. financing and other amendments to the Senate appropriations bill.
“I do not believe this was some random act of violence,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said in a floor speech on Wednesday morning. “It seems clear this was coldblooded murder committed by a terrorist who picked his targets with deliberate malice, who pledged his allegiance to a group that stones gay men and tosses them from rooftops. To a group that enslaves women. To a group that crucifies children,” Mr. McConnell said. Jonathan Lowy, director of the Legal Action Project of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said that while the Democratic legislation was “a very promising step in the right direction,” none of the proposals currently under consideration go far enough.
He added, using an alternate name for the group: “The way to prevent more ISIL-inspired and ISIL-directed heartbreak is to defeat ISIL. This is why we’ve repeatedly demanded a serious plan from the president to defeat ISIL, and done what we can to fill the leadership vacuum he’s left.” “We need to require background checks for all gun sales if we truly want to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and other dangerous people,” Mr. Lowy said.
Mr. Lowy added that he still does not entirely understand what Mr. Trump is proposing. “You certainly can’t enact the tweet into law — you need more specifics than that,” he said. “We’ll have to see what actual legislation, if any, Trump actually supports.”