Trump: Nation needs 'meaningful' firearms background checks

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the nation needs “meaningful background checks” for purchasers of firearms, throwing his support behind a gun-control measure that Republicans and the NRA have opposed for decades.

Speaking a week after two mass shootings took the lives of 31 people, Trump said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is “totally on board” and that the National Rifle Association also will support it, or at least be neutral.

But McConnell has not backed any specific legislation yet and the NRA’s leader Wayne LaPierre dismissed many of the gun-control measures being discussed as “sound bite solutions” that would not work — reactions that led Democrats to express skepticism of Trump’s claims.

“Frankly, we need intelligent background checks,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for fundraisers on Long Island. “We have tremendous support for really common sense important background checks.”

Trump also said he would support a “red flag” measure, possibly one being drafted by his ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to give grants to states to pass laws creating a legal process to remove guns from people deemed dangerous.

McConnell said he would not call for the Senate to return from its five-week recess to take up those gun-control measures, a decision that Trump endorsed on Friday.

“Leadership is dealing along with me right now,” Trump said. “I don't think we'll need to call them back. I think we'll have a very good package by the time they come back. And they can start debating and voting on it then.”

McConnell on Thursday said in a Louisville, Kentucky, radio interview, “Background checks and red flags will probably lead the discussion. Those are two items that for sure will be front and center as we see what we can come together on and pass.”

But a McConnell aide said Friday that the Senate majority leader in that interview did not endorse anything specific but rather spoke about broad policy areas where he believes Congress can make a law.

And LaPierre, the NRA’s CEO and executive vice president, said in a statement on the NRA website that he won’t discuss his conversations with Trump. “But I can confirm,” he said, “that the NRA opposes any legislation that unfairly infringes upon the rights of law-abiding citizens.”

Schumer cast doubt on Trump’s commitment to passing background checks.

“If @realDonaldTrump needs the NRA’s sign off for background checks legislation, it will be nearly impossible to accomplish anything meaningful to address gun violence,” Schumer tweeted Friday. “The NRA stated even yesterday that they are against background checks legislation which 90% of Americans support.”

Schumer and Pelosi said in a joint statement Thursday evening that they had each separately spoken to Trump Thursday and told him the best way forward was for McConnell to bring up and pass two bills expanding background checks approved by the House.

The Democratic-led House in February passed two bills to expand the requirement that a person be cleared by a background check before being allowed to buy a firearm at gun shows and over the internet, and to expand the time the check can take from three to 10 days.

Yet the vote broke down along partisan lines: All but eight Republicans voted against the expansion and all but three Republicans opposed the expanded amount of time for authorities to complete the background check.

McConnell, meanwhile, has not brought up either measure on the Senate floor.

But on Thursday, McConnell said, “What we can't do is fail to pass something. What I want to see here is an outcome."