President Trump voiced support for bipartisan background check legislation while speaking to reporters Wednesday morning.
The U.S. has had background checks on retail sales since 1998, but in February the Democrat-controlled House passed legislation to expand those checks to cover private gun sales as well. That background check expansion has been sitting in the Senate without a vote ever since.
On August 5, 2019, Breitbart News reported that Trump floated the idea of “strong background checks.” He said, “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!”
Trump did not provide any details Monday on how those might look and he did not provide any details Wednesday when speaking to reporters either. Rather, the Associated Press quoted him saying, “There’s a great appetite, and I mean a very strong appetite, for background checks. And I think we can bring up background checks like we’ve never had before.”
Mass shooters do not historically buy their guns from private sellers. Rather, they buy them at retail via background checks, so expanding background checks to cover private sales would do nothing to stop their attacks.
Here is a partial list of mass shooters who acquired guns via background checks:
- the Dayton, Ohio, attacker (August 3, 2019).
- the Poway Synagogue attacker (April 27, 2019)
- the Tree of Life Synagogue attacker (October 27, 2018)
- the Parkland high school attacker (February 14, 2018)
- the Texas church attacker (November 5, 2017)
- the Las Vegas attacker (October 1, 2017)
- the Alexandria attacker (June 14, 2017))
- the Orlando attacker (June 12, 2016)
- the UCLA gunman (June 1, 2016))
- the San Bernardino attackers (December 2, 2015)
- the Colorado Springs attacker (October 31, 2015)
- the Umpqua Community College attacker (October 1, 2015)
- Alison Parker’s attacker (August 26, 2015)
- the Lafayette movie theater attacker (July 23, 2015)
- the Chattanooga attacker (July 16, 2015)
- the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attacker (Jun 17, 2015)
- the Muhammad Carton Contest attackers (May 3, 2014)
- the Las Vegas cop killers (June 9, 2015)
- the Santa Barbara attacker (May 23, 2014)
- the Fort Hood attacker (April 2, 2014)
- the Arapahoe High School attacker (December 13, 2013)
- the D.C. Navy Yard attacker (September 16, 2013)
- the Aurora movie theater attacker (July 20, 2012)
- Gabby Giffords’ attacker (January 8, 2011)
- the Fort Hood attacker (November 5, 2009)
- the Virginia Tech attacker (April 16, 2007)
President Trump made clear he has no “political appetite” for banning “assault weapons.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.