President Trump bucks the Republican Party on gun control: full transcript – By Rachel Wolfe (vox.com) / Feb 28 2018
President Donald Trump sat down with lawmakers at the White House Wednesday afternoon to discuss gun policy in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — and Trump appeared to enthusiastically endorse several gun control measures, including a bipartisan gun control bill that failed to pass the Senate during Barack Obama’s presidency.
It was a surprising scene, but it’s not yet clear if Trump’s words will translate into policy. Below is a full rush transcript of the meeting at the White House:
President Trump
We have to do something about it. We have to act.
We can’t wait and play games and nothing gets done. And I really believe that the people — this is bipartisan. It’s a bipartisan meeting. We’re going to discuss safe schools and we can really get there. But we have to do it.
We don’t want to wait two weeks, three weeks, four weeks and people sort of forget and we go on and then have another problem. We want to stop the problems from happening. As we continue to mourn the loss of so many precious young lives in Parkland, Florida, we’re determined to turn our grief into action. I really believe that. I think that the people at this table want it. I mean, I see some folks that don’t say nice things about me, and that’s okay. Because if you turn that into this energy, I’ll love you. I don’t care. We’ll be able to do it. Sadly, these horrible mass shootings are nothing new.
Look at Columbine, Colorado. Bill Clinton was president. Virginia Tech, George Bush. Ft. Hood, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, Pulse Nightclub and so many more. It’s ridiculous.
So today we’re here on a bipartisan fashion to show leadership in an effort to end the senseless violence. It can be ended. And it will be ended. First we must harden our schools against attack.
These include allowing people with a certified training, very talented people, to carry firearms.
Some people are going to disagree with that, and I understand that. I fully understand that. If you do, I want you to speak up today and we’ll listen. But 98 percent of all mass shootings in the United States, since 1950, have taken place in gun-free Zones, where guns were not inside the school or, as an example, you take the Pulse Nightclub.
You had one person in that room that could carry a gun and knew how to use it, it wouldn’t have happened. Certainly not to the extent it did, where he was just in there shooting and shooting and shooting. And they were defenseless. Just remember that.
Ninety-eight percent of all mass public shootings in the United States since 1950 have taken place in gun-free zones. It’s terrible. You’ve got to have defense, too. You can’t just be sitting ducks. That’s exactly what we’ve allowed people in these buildings and schools to be. Second, we have to confront mental health. There’s never been a case that I’ve ever seen — I’m sure everybody would feel the same — where mental health was so obviously — 39 different red flags. Everybody was seeing it. The local police, the state police, the FBI. Everybody was seeing that this guy was sick and nothing happened.
Third, we have to ensure that when students, educators, family, neighbors, when they warn authorities that the authorities act quickly and decisively, unlike what took police in Florida, which was horrible. Fourth, we have to pursue common sense measures that protect the rights of law-abiding Americans while keeping guns and — we have to keep the guns out of the hands that pose the threat. And this really includes background checks.
I know, Senator, you’re working on things. Joe, I know you’re working. I mean, I’m looking at a number of folks around the table. You’re working in different bills. We have to get them done.
We have to get them done. And they have to be strong.
Background checks — hey, look, I’m the biggest fan of the second amendment. Many of you are. I’m a big fan of the NRA. I had lunch with them, with Wayne, Chris and David, on Sunday and said, it’s time.
We’re going to stop this nonsense. It’s time. So, we made suggestions to many of you. And I think you’re going to put a lot of those suggestions in place. You’re going to have your own ideas. Certain ideas sound good but they’re not good. You can harden the sight to a level nobody could get in. Problem is if the shooter is inside and he gets in the door and closes the door, we can’t get people in. It’s going to cost hundred of millions of dollars all over the country and we’ll have nice hard sites.
The door closes and now we can’t get in, have to send the tractor through the walls. So we have to be careful of that. We have to create a culture that cherishes life and human dignity. We’re all going to sit around and come up with some ideas. Hopefully, we can put those ideas in a very bipartisan bill. It would be so beautiful to have one bill that everybody could support as opposed to, you know, 15 bills.
Everybody has their own bill. If we could have one terrific bill that everybody — started by the people around this take. Special people. These are the people that seem to be most interested, very interested in this problem. It’s a big problem. So, with that, I think I would like to start. Maybe you can ask John, you can start off and we’ll go back and forth. We’ll leave the media for a while and they can leave us with some thought. There’s something that can be done.
There’s no reason for this. I really believe that those people, it’s idealistic, wonderful, a beautiful thing. If you think that somebody is going to be able to walk into a school, if they feel that they’re not going to have bullets coming at them from the other direction, you’re never going to solve the problem. I feel that. I feel that. But I’m certainly open to suggestions. So, John, why don’t you start? You’ve put in your fix nix. Let’s see how it is and we’ll go ahead.
Sen. John Cornyn
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you for getting us together and expressing your sincere concern about this and trying to get us to a solution. And going home empty handed is unacceptable. It’s hard to get people together on a bipartisan basis. Sutherland Springs, we lost 26 people when a guy, convicted felon, convicted of domestic violence, less than honorable discharge from the military, none of which was uploaded into the background check system maintained by the FBI. That’s only as good as the data put into it.
So 46 Senate colleagues on the bipartisan basis have what we think is a start. It’s not the end all be all. Other things that people want to add to it. We talked about the bump stock issue that I know Sen. Feinstein cares passionately about.
President Trump
I’m going to essentially write that out. We can do that with an executive order. I’m essentially going to write it out. You won’t have to worry about bump stock. Shortly, that will be gone. We can focus on other things. Frankly, I don’t know that it would be good to have it be in this bill. We’ll have that done. They’re working on it quickly. Go ahead.
Sen. John Cornyn
We need to get started on things only we could do, this background check system. People have other ideas, they ought to offer those ideas. I’m not sure all of them will pass but in the past we’ve acquiesced to failure and have not done things that we know were within our power to accomplish, like the Fix NICS Bill. SO I would like to recommend to you and to my colleagues that we get that done and build on it. We don’t stop there. We build on it. None of us want to look these families in the face in the wake of another mass shooting and say we failed to do everything within our power to stop it.
President Trump
And, John, Fix NICS has some really good things in it. It would be nice if we could add everything on to it and maybe change the title, all right? The U.S. Background check bill or whatever. Your bill is really good and really important, having to do with a certain aspect. Maybe we could make it much more comprehensive and have one bill instead of 15 different bills and nobody knows what’s happening.
If we can get 60 votes for it, Mr. President, I’m all for it.
I think you can. I think this is one of the things you can actually get the 60 votes and maybe easily. Dianne, do you have something?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
I do, Mr. President. You probably know this, but I became mayor of San Francisco as a product of the assassination. I’ve been the victim of terrorist groups. The department gave me a weapon.
They taught me how to shoot it and we proceeded through the 1970s that way. What I’ve watched and seen is the development of weapons that I never thought would leave the battlefield, that are out on our streets. And the latest and newest, Mr. Chairman, is the ar-15. It’s got a lot of assets to it and it’s misused. And it tears apart a human body with a velocity. And I watched the school shootings, in particular, which you pointed out. And I thought Sandy Hook — and I’m delighted that Sen. Murphy is here today.
We thought Sandy Hook would be the end. And he and I introduced another assault weapons bill after the first one. We didn’t succeed with it. But the killings have gone on. The number of incidents have gone up. I put my case in writing, which I will give you, if I may, in letter form.
President Trump
Good. Thank you.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Secondly the assault weapons legislation, this is the number of incidents before. And of incidents and of deaths. This is when the ten-year assault weapon ban was in how incidents and deaths dropped. When it ended, you see it going up. So, Sen. Murphy —
President Trump
I’ll take a look at it.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
And 26 of us have co-sponsored a new bill. I would be most honored if you would take a look at it.
President Trump
I will.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
We will get it to you and let us know what you think of it.
President Trump
I will.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Thank you.
President Trump
Thank you very much. Chris? Go ahead.
Sen. Chris Murphy
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, thank you very much. Thank you for taking this seriously. Our hearts go out to Parkland. We know, having gone through this in Sandy Hook that that community will never, ever be the same. I want to bring this issue to background checks if I could. I think there’s real opportunity.
President Trump
I agree.
Sen. Chris Murphy
There’s no other issue like background checks. 97 percent of Americans want universal background checks in states that have universal background checks, there are 35 percent less gun murders than in states that don’t have them. And yet we can’t get it done. Nothing else like that, where it works, people want it.
And we can’t do it.
President Trump
You have a different president now. You went through a lot of presidents and didn’t get it done. You have a different president. I think maybe you have a different attitude, too. I think people want to get it done. Go ahead.
Sen. Chris Murphy
In the end, Mr. President, the reason nothing has gotten down here is because the gun lobby has a veto power over any legislation on guns before Congress. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is. If all we end up doing is the stuff that the gun industry supports this isn’t worth it. We are not going to make a difference.
I’m glad that you sat down with the NRA, but we will get 60 votes on a bill that looks like the compromise on background checks if you support it, if you come to congress, if you come to Republicans and say we are going to do a Manchin-Toomey-like bill to get background checks it will pass. If this meeting ends up with vague notions of future compromise, then nothing will happen.
President Trump
We don’t want that.
Sen. Chris Murphy
So I think we have a unique opportunity to get comprehensive background checks, make sure that nobody buys a gun in this country that’s a criminal, that’s seriously mentally ill, that’s on the terrorist watch list. Mr. President, it’s going to have to be you that brings the Republicans to the table on this.
President Trump
Sure.
Sen. Chris Murphy
Right now the gun lobby would stop it in its tracks.
President Trump
I like that responsibility, Chris. I really do. I think it’s time that a president stepped up. I’m talking Democrat and Republican presidents, they’ve not stepped up. And maybe before I call on Marco, I would like to have Pat Toomey and Joe Manchin, can you sort of detail your bill? I haven’t heard a lot about it, actually.
Sen. Pat Toomey
Thank you very much. Absolutely, Mr. President. And I do think our bill is the best chance of moving forward. We got 54 votes in 2013, the most that any bill in this space got. It has several components. First title is very similar to what Jon Cornyn and Chris Murphy’s bill does. It strengthens the reporting of information into the background check system.
President Trump
Having one bill is nicer than having seven bills.
Sen. Pat Toomey
Right. The second part has a provision that would require background checks on all commercial sales. One of the big gaps in our background check system today is sales at gun shows and sales over the internet are not necessarily subject to a background check and we think they should be. These are commercial in nature and they’re on a scale that really matters.
Our bill would require those background checks. We also have a number of provisions which we’ll —
President Trump
Do you have support for that, bipartisan support for what you’re saying?
Sen. Pat Toomey
We had 54 votes in 2013. Most of those 54 voters are still in the Senate.
President Trump
And not a lot of presidential backup?
Sen. Pat Toomey
President Obama did support it.
President Trump
But that was your problem.
Sen. Pat Toomey
There was a worry he wanted to go further, frankly, and that was a concern for some of our guys. Two other items. One is a list of ways in which a law-abiding citizen could have greater freedom to exercise the second amendment, for instance, allowing an active duty military person to buy a gun in his home state. It’s against the law. That shouldn’t be. And then secondly, to create a commission that looks at the sources and causes of these terrible mass shootings.
President Trump
What are you doing in the schools?
Sen. Joe Manchin
We have a school safety provision in this bill also. When I was governor we remodeled a lot of schools and built a lot of schools. “Gov. Manchin, you’ve got to make sure you have the first floor windows all bulletproof.” We never knew that. No one ever came to me with that concern. With Sandy Hook, that’s how he got his way in. We made sure we addressed all that. There’s not a person in West Virginia who believes you’re not going to defend their second amendment rights, not a person.
With you taking a lead on something like this, it gives them the comfort that something reasonable — and this bill has been vetted for over five years and over 70, 80 percent of gun owners say we like your bill, Joe. We’re just afraid President Obama would take it further, take more rights away. That’s what I was running into in West Virginia.
Sen. Joe Manchin
Or use that as an excuse not to sign: he was not proactive in getting a bill signed, in all fairness.
Sen. Pat Toomey
In all fairness, this is a bill that basically, with your support, it would pass. It would pass. And we think basically it takes commercial sales.
President Trump
And maybe to that bill if we use that as a base, you could add some of the things that are going to be said in the room or you may not want to. But there are going to be things that are going to be said today that I think will be in addition to yours, Joe, which you could add almost anything. You know what that involves. I think it would be a positive thing in terms of background checks.
Sen. Joe Manchin
I will say this, Mr. President. On this piece of legislation here, without background checks, on commercial transactions — if a person basically — when the terrorists basically say, hey, go down to the local gun show and get whatever you want. Because you could be in a gun show. Two-thirds of the gun show has federal license dealers that had to have background checks if you buy it from them. Go to the next table there is not one. It’s a loophole. Intrastate to intrastate. If you’re selling outside the state on the internet you need a background check. If you sell in state, one part of New York versus the other, doesn’t have to. This closes all those loopholes.
President Trump
We have to do something about the mentally ill not being able to buy a gun. They have so many checks and balances that you could be mentally ill and it takes you six months before you — prohibit it. We have to do something very decisive.
Number one, take the guns away immediately from people that you can adjudge is mentally ill. The police didn’t take the gun as way. That could have been policing. I think they should have taken them anyway, whether they had the right or not. You have to have very strong provisions for the mentally ill. People are saying I shouldn’t be saying that. I don’t want mentally ill people to be having guns. Marco?
Sen. Marco Rubio
Mr. President, thanks for bringing us here. I think we all agree — we all know what the issues are that are fought over on this issue. I think everyone agrees we never want to see this happen anywhere again in America. You mentioned something about the shooting that is critical. This was a multi-systemic failure. Without pointing fingers or laying blame on anyone in particular that may or may not be here to defend themselves, the sheriff’s office knew this was a problem. The school districts knew this was a problem. The FBI had been alerted to a problem. The department of children and families in Florida knew this was a problem.
But the big problem is none of them talked to each other. Nobody told the others what they knew. And there is a bill out there that Sen. Hatch is going to file very soon and congressman Rutherford and others have filed called stop school violence act. I’ll let them describe it more in detail. One thing it does, it incentivizes the creation of this synergy where all these people are talking to each so they can compare notes and get ahead of this.
The best way to prevent these is to stop it before it even starts. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t harden schools or have a debate on other issues but the best thing that can happen is know who these people are and get on them and get them the services they need and deny them the right to buy any gun.
And I think that is something that holds tremendous bipartisan promise, if we can come together on the things we agree on. One last point in the state of Florida, they have a very different process. But they are already moving on legislation.
The governor and the legislators. They are going to pass something, perhaps by the end of this week, on a series of things. We move slower over here but that’s an example to us, I hope we can get done what we can agree on and debate and act on other things. There are things we agree on. We owe it to these families to do those things.
President Trump
I agree, Marco. Chuck, anything?
Sen. Chuck Grassley
I would like to comment from this standpoint. First of all, a caution on mental health because there’s a lot of people that have mental health issues that are not dangerous to themselves or to others. So I think we’ve got to concentrate on those not just that have mental health issues, but the ones that show danger to themselves or others.
Because otherwise it’s not fair to other people that have mental illness that isn’t. I’ll comment on the can culture within the schools but I can’t say it any better than Sen. Rubio said it or Sen. Hatch would say it. It seems to me we have to have a culture in our schools where people are attuned to the people that have problems that could create this massacre sort of thing or anything else that would even connected with bullying as just one example.
We have to do things at the federal level that will build schools or resources to do that. So that kind of fits in with what Sen. Hatch is saying. Then I’ll end with more of a process. As chairman of the committee that will deal with a lot of this legislation, we’ve got to do something. I want to help facilitate those things and move them along. And see what we can do.
President Trump
You’ll be a great help. I have no doubt.
Sen. Chuck Grassley
To get a consensus.
President Trump
You’re going to be a great help. Thanks, Chuck. I would like to ask Joe and Pat, in your bill, what are you doing about the 18 to 21?
Sen. Pat Toomey
I’ll change that.
President Trump
Are you going to leave that?
Sen. Pat Toomey
Whatever you want.
President Trump
We have a case where can you buy a handgun at 21. This isn’t a popular thing to say in terms of the NRA but I’m going to say it anyway.
I just have to say it. You can’t buy — think of it. You can buy a handgun. You can’t buy one. You have to wait until you’re 21. You can buy the kind of weapon used in the school shooting at 18. I think it’s something you have to think about.
Sen. Pat Toomey
Would you sign that?
President Trump
I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give it a lot of consideration. And I’m the one bringing it up. People aren’t bringing it up because they’re afraid to bring it up. You can’t buy a handgun at 18, 19 or 20. You have to wait until you’re 21. You could buy the weapon used in this horrible shooting at 18. You are going to decide, the people in this room pretty much, are going to decide. I would give very serious thought to it. The NRA is opposed to it and I’m a fan of the NRA. No bigger fan. I’m a big fan of the NRA. These are great people. Great patriots. They love our country but that doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything. It doesn’t make sense that I have to wait till I’m 21 to get a handgun but I can get this weapon at 18. I don’t know. I’m just curious as to what you did in your bill.
Sen. Pat Toomey
We didn’t address it, Mr. President.
President Trump
Do you know why? You’re afraid of the NRA.
Sen. Pat Toomey
No. I dealt with the NRA five years ago.
President Trump
It’s a big issue right now. A lot of people are afraid of that issue, raising the age for that weapon to 21.
Sen. Pat Toomey
My reservation about it, frankly, is that the vast majority of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds in Pennsylvania who have a rifle or shotgun, they’re not a threat to anyone. They’re law-abiding citizens. They have that because they want to use it for hunting or target shooting. To deny them their second amendment right is not going to make anyone safer. That’s my reservation about changing the age.
President Trump
I know where you’re coming from. And I understand that. I understand that. I think it’s a position. It’s a position. But I think we’re going to use you as a base, the two of you, I think you’re going to have to iron out that problem. I’m asked that question more than almost any other question. Are you going to 21 or not? Anybody? Yes, Steve.
Steve Daines
Mr. President, around the table, like many, I sit here as a father of four, as an uncle. I was with yesterday she was campaigning. The first four words you said today struck me today. We need to act. But the only worst thing than doing nothing is doing something that doesn’t achieve the intended result. You were in business your entire life. I was in business 28 years. This is not about activities in doing things but it’s about a result. Active shooting kids is cowardly. Moms and dads want to know when they drop off their kids, they are safe. This morning, I came in early.
I bypassed the gym, gave me an excuse to bypass the gym, gave myself some time to think when nobody else is in the office at 7 am. And put together a sheet of the 14 mass killings. Three or more people lost their lives is considered a mass killing. Since columbine, we’ve had 14 of these in our country. And my staff put together a nice spreadsheet but I was handwriting this this morning. How many decide, what was the age of the shooter? How was that firearm obtained, what’s the status of the shooter? Mostly, by the way, suicides.
President Trump
And was their offensive firepower on the inside of those facilities so that when the gunman comes in, we have defensive capability. One other thing, if he knew there was offensive power inside of the 14 events, probably none of them would have happened.
Steve Daines
So a message of deterrence —
President Trump
Important for people to understand.
Steve Daines
Mr. President, the message of deterrence is very important when you think about stopping these homicidal, suicidal killers. There were meetings in here right after 9/11, after that horrible event occurred, there were meetings in the situation room right after it occurred and we made a decision as a nation. We’re going to secure our skies. We can never let that happen again. We had to restore the trust of the public to get back on airplanes. Mr. President, we need to secure our schools because parents want action now. We had some huge society issues. These shooters typically are males. They’re white and they’re suicidal.
President Trump:
And they’re cowards.
(Continue to transcript: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/28/17064540/donald-trump-gun-control-full-transcript-roundtable
