White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reassured reporters Friday morning that the president has always and will always support the second amendment. The comment comes after the media asked questions about a meeting he and Vice President Mike Pence had with the National Rifle Association (NRA) Thursday evening.
“Did the president make any specific promises to the NRA in a meeting yesterday?” a reporter asked during a press gaggle.
“Only that he’ll continue to support the Second Amendment, that’s not something that he’s backed away from,” Sanders replied. “The background check system is something that he’s still very much interested in improving.”
When asked if the president supported the progressive-led policy of Universal Background Checks, Sanders responded, “Not necessarily universal background checks, but certainly improving the background check system. He wants to see what that legislation, the final piece of it looks like. Universal means something different to a lot of people. He certainly wants to focus and improve on the background check system. ”
The public’s view of Trump’s stance on gun rights and gun control became a bit confused yesterday after the president seemed to support the suspension of due process yesterday.
“Take the guns first, go through due process second.” Trump said.
Trump then explained that simply considering someone mentally ill might be enough.
“Number one, you can take the guns away immediately from people that you can adjudge easily are mentally ill, like this guy,” he said.
Sanders also said that the president supports raising the age to buy any firearm to 21, but that it might be a state issue.
“Conceptually, he still supports raising the age to 21,” she said. “I think he thinks it would probably have more potential in the states than it would at the federal level.”
Gun rights and civil libertarian activists cried foul at the president’s comments saying that searching someone’s home and seizing property without due process was obviously unconstitutional.
“The NRA is also going to protect due process for innocent Americans, and that is an approach that we are going to hold to,” said NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. “Due process must be respected…it is a foundational principle of this country.”
The NRA Executive Director Chris Cox said that the meeting with the president Thursday night was “great” and showed that Trump “doesn’t want gun control.”
I had a great meeting tonight with @realDonaldTrump & @VP. We all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control. #NRA #MAGA
— Chris Cox (@ChrisCoxCap6) March 2, 2018
