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Gun control: consensus far off as Trump prepares to meet lawmakers

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill agree that the demand for action in the wake of the school massacre in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month, has shifted the debate around gun control in this country. What they still aren’t any closer to agreeing on is what to do about it.

“I think we’re in new territory,” said Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who is working on legislation to raise the age from 18 to 21 to purchase certain types of semi-automatic rifles. “It’s definitely different this time – I hope.”

But even against the backdrop of a fiery grassroots movement, led by student survivors of the Parkland shooting, and a surge in public support for legislative action, the prospects for breaking decades of gridlock on one of the most politically contentious issues in Washington remain grim.

“I don’t think we need more gun control. I think we need better idiot control,” Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, who is wary of even modest reforms, repeated to reporters on Tuesday.

The renewed debate over gun laws comes after Donald Trump urged Congress to take action following the murder of 17 students and faculty members at a Florida high school on Valentine’s Day.

The president has suggested he would be open to strengthening background checks and threw his support behind a ban on bump stocks, a device that in effect converts semi-automatic guns into automatic weapons and was used by a gunman last year when he killed dozens of people at a country music concert in Las Vegas.


Source :- theguardian

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