PA Bill Number: SB170
Title: In criminal history record information, further providing for juvenile records; and, in juvenile matters, further providing for powers and duties of ...
Description: In criminal history record information, further providing for juvenile records; and, in juvenile matters, further providing for powers and dutie ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: Oct 2, 2024
Second Amendment advocate: Trump has turned into the gun grabber in chief :: 03/01/2018
President Trump's suggestion Wednesday that authorities take away people's guns and deal with legal justifications later has some gun rights advocates alarmed.
"You can quote me saying that Donald Trump has turned into the gun grabber in chief," said Gun Owners of America legislative counsel Michael Hammond. “He campaigned on the proposition of being the best friend to the Second Amendment and he’s turned out to be a bigger enemy of the Second Amendment than Barack Obama.”
Hammond said "we are outraged by everything he said" during a meeting at the White House, where Trump encouraged a bipartisan group of lawmakers to pass gun control legislation.
Hammond expressed dismay at Trump's apparent support for background check legislation drafted by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., which he feels is too comprehensive, and Trump’s dismissal of a suggestion from House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., that Congress pass a law establishing reciprocity for state concealed carry licenses.
At the meeting, Trump suggested new background check rules, a focus on mental health, and raising the national age to 21 for buying AR-15-style rifles.
Trump said police who had contact with Nikolas Cruz, the alleged gunman who killed 17 people at a Florida high school this month, knew about his guns and "should have taken them away anyways whether they had the right or not.”
Later in the meeting, Trump doubled down. “Take the firearms first and then go to court,” he said. “Because that’s another system — a lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court, to get the due process procedures.”
Trump added: “I like taking the guns early. Like, in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida. He had a lot of firearms; they saw everything. To go to court would have taken a long time. You could do exactly what you’re saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second.”
Gwendolyn Patton, leader of the gay gun rights group Pink Pistols, said "it is worrisome" that Trump would endorse taking people's guns without following standard legal processes.
Patton said she believes that police could easily have justified taking Cruz’s weapons through established legal mechanisms.
“In the case of Cruz, they actually had fairly substantial probable cause. They had reports from family, reports from friends, report from neighbors that he was threatening and showing signs that he was not in his right mind,” Patton said. “I saw one report that he actually put a gun to someone's head. This is assault; these are terroristic threats. These are crimes. The cops should have done their jobs and arrested him for the offenses he did commit, and then, they could have taken his guns away with probable cause and due process.”
Some gun rights advocates, however, were willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
"President Trump sometimes speaks or tweets in simplistic terms,” said Alan Gottlieb, president of the Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“It is our hope that due process protections will be built in any legislation that he will support,” Gottlieb said. “Without those protections, the gun rights community can not support it. So far, his record as president on Second Amendment issues has been excellent. If he strays, he will lose the support of those gun owners whose rights he pledged to protect."
