Trump: US Lawmakers ’Petrified’ of Powerful NRA Gun Lobby
Local Editor
US President
Donald Trump told a bipartisan group of Senators on Wednesday that no
progress has been made on gun reform legislation over the years because
lawmakers are "petrified" of the powerful National Rifle Association
[NRA] gun lobby.
"They have great power over you people," Trump told his fellow Republicans. "They have less power over me."
"Some of you people are petrified of the NRA. You can't be petrified. You can't be petrified," Trump told the seventeen Democratic and Republican lawmakers who attended the hour-long summit.
The remarks, which are sure to put Trump's fellow Republicans in the hot seat, were made during a meeting to discuss gun safety when the president called for a "comprehensive" bill on gun reform.
Trump -- who received strong backing from the NRA during his White House run endorsed limited expansion of background checks on gun buyers and said he would consider raising the legal age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21 -- an idea opposed by the association.
Trump called for "one great piece of legislation" to address the issue, which has been thrust yet again into political debate following outcry over a Valentine's Day Florida school shooting that saw a 19-year-old kill 17 people.
Trump took aim at a bill co-authored by Republican Senators Pat Toomey and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, saying that the proposed legislation failed to include a provision raising the legal age to guy rifles.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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