Analysis: Trump Sticks to His Guns Following FSU Shooting [Member Exclusive]

Confronted with the primary high-profile taking pictures of his second time period, Donald Trump bucked preliminary calls for brand spanking new gun restrictions.

After a 20-year-old pupil at Florida State College shot and killed two folks on campus Thursday and injured six others, the President was requested by reporters within the Oval Workplace if the incident would immediate him to help any new gun laws. Whereas he referred to as the assault a “disgrace,” he blamed the perpetrator moderately than their weapons.

“This stuff are horrible, however the gun doesn’t do the taking pictures. The folks do,” Trump stated. “It’s, you already know, a phrase that’s used most likely too usually. I’ll inform you that it’s a disgrace.”

He stated his administration would “have extra to say about it later,” however added that he had no plans to help new gun legal guidelines.

“So far as laws is worried, this has been happening for a very long time,” he stated. “I’ve an obligation to guard the Second Modification. I ran on the Second Modification, amongst different issues, and I’ll at all times shield the Second Modification.”

Although a Republican politician stiff-arming requires stricter gun legal guidelines after a taking pictures will not be precisely an atypical prevalence in American politics, Trump is way from the standard Republican. He has gone additional to attach with gun-rights activists than earlier Republican presidents by doing issues like talking on the NRA’s annual conferences–at the least till this yr. However he has additionally deviated from staunch pro-gun messaging within the aftermath of exactly these kind of main public taking pictures incidents, particularly throughout his first time period within the White Home.

Following the 2018 Parkland taking pictures, he publicly thought-about backing “crimson flag” laws, declaring on the time his desire to “take the weapons first, undergo due course of second” in a second that has change into notorious amongst some gun-rights advocates. Within the aftermath of the 2019 El Paso taking pictures, he reportedly flirted with supporting an “assault weapon” ban behind closed doorways, in line with the New York Occasions. He additionally allegedly floated increasing background checks and elevating the age to buy any gun to 21 after each incidents, in line with the Occasions.

When a gunman wielding a suppressor-equipped handgun murdered 12 folks at a municipal middle in Virginia Seashore in 2019, Trump toyed with the thought of outlawing them in public media interviews. Maybe most notably, he unilaterally applied a complete ban on bump shares by way of ATF rulemaking after the 2017 Las Vegas taking pictures. A minimum of till the Supreme Courtroom struck down the coverage final yr.

Against this, Trump’s preliminary feedback within the wake of the FSU taking pictures depart no house for brand spanking new gun management. They’re additionally consistent with his response to being shot within the ear by an AR-15-wielding tried murderer at a marketing campaign occasion final summer season.

In fact, it’s nonetheless too early to say whether or not that can maintain all through his remaining tenure, and there are at the least some causes to suppose that the FSU taking pictures might not be as attempting a check as these he confronted in his earlier time period.

It’s an unlucky and grisly reality that focus and stress for brand spanking new gun legal guidelines within the aftermath of public taking pictures incidents are inclined to scale with physique rely. The Florida State taking pictures seems to have claimed two lives to date, which continues to be horrible. Nevertheless, it could not current the identical stress level that the Parkland or Las Vegas taking pictures did–although the presence of Parkland survivors on the FSU campus in the course of the taking pictures may lead to added consideration and political stress.

It’s additionally not clear, at the least primarily based on preliminary experiences from the early investigation into the taking pictures, what new gun legal guidelines would probably intersect with the incident.

The shooter carried out his assault with a handgun and a shotgun, firearms with none sizeable ban-supporting constituency just like the AR-15 or different so-called assault weapons. The assault passed off on a school campus the place Florida regulation already prohibits the carrying of firearms. The shooter was additionally 20 years previous, which means he was each too younger underneath federal regulation to legally purchase a handgun from a firearms seller and too younger to buy different firearms underneath Florida’s post-Parkland 21-year-old minimal age requirement for gun gross sales.

Lastly, the shooter additionally reportedly sourced at the least the handgun used within the assault from his mom, who’s an energetic regulation enforcement officer. Whereas that raises some potential questions on weapons storage and shared entry, regulation enforcement officers are typically exempt from even essentially the most restrictive gun-control regimes within the nation.

Gun-control teams have tried to show the political warmth up on Trump to do one thing. However the extra restricted loss of life toll relative to different mass shootings and lack of apparent gun coverage flashpoints probably retains the stress comparatively low given the circumstances.

Regardless, Donald Trump resisted the preliminary name for brand spanking new gun restrictions within the first actual check of his second time period. That ought to reassure gun-rights advocates whereas irritating gun-control supporters. A minimum of, for now.