Donald Trump Signals Significant Shift In Gun Control Law

United States (US) President Donald Trump on Monday (19 February) announced a major policy change on gun control. Trump said he would support a bipartisan Senate Bill to improve the background check on gun buyers.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was quoted by The Guardian telling the media that Trump was in talks with Republican senator John Cornyn and Democratic senator Chris Murphy on a bill that aimed to strengthen how state and federal governments report crimes that could ban people from buying a firearm.

The bill that Trump indicated he would sign is one called the Fix NICS Act. It was drafted by Cornyn and Murphy. It requires federal agencies to upload criminal records to the national background check system, to prevent shooters from obtaining guns.

This marked a big change from Trump’s earlier stand. Last year commenting on the mass shooting that took place at a church in Sutherland Springs, the US President remarked that any gun control legislation would have made the incident worse since the person who shot the perpetuator of the violence would’ve have been prevented from getting a gun.

A new urgency has emerged to control gun sales in the US, particularly in places like Texas and Las Vegas, after an expelled high school student shot dead 17 at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The incident has triggered widespread protests among school students and activists groups demanding better control of arms sales.

The US Congress has taken up at least 100 proposals for reform of gun sales legislation but no proposal has gotten through yet. With Trump now backing Cornyn-Murphy Bill, its outcome will be watched with interest.