The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The president initially made no mention of guns, drawing an angry reaction from Democrats and angry Floridians. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic minority leader, noted that Trump’s proposed 2019 budget would actually cut spending on the background check program.
Even one of the most shocking mass shootings of recent years — the 2012 attack on a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 young children and six adults dead — brought little legal change, though Connecticut and a handful of other states toughened their gun laws.
– ‘A real, genuine effort’ –
But there are some indications that the limited steps Trump backs might succeed.
The NRA says it has “long supported the inclusion of all legitimate records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.”
Gun control advocates also back the bill sponsored by Senators Joh Cornyn, a Republican, and Chris Murphy, a Democrat. They came together after a gunman killed 26 people at a Texas church in November.
“This is a real, genuine effort from people who couldn’t be further from each other on the other side of the aisle,” a Coalition to Stop Gun Violence official told The Atlantic magazine.
And the impassioned calls for change from Parkland shooting survivors — photogenic young people who say they can no longer put up with the inaction of older generations — have kept the issue alive.
“We need to do something,” 17-year-old David Hogg, a shooting survivor, told CNN. “Congress needs to get over their political bias with each other and work toward saving children’s lives.”
CNN is holding a town hall meeting on Wednesday with the victims’ classmates, parents, community members and Florida politicians.
The students’ cries for action would appear to enjoy broad support.
A Quinnipiac University opinion survey in November found that support for universal background checks had reached an all-time high, with 95 percent of voters favoring such checks.
