Trump and NRA complicate response to Florida shootings

After the recent high school shootings in Parkland, Florida, there have been renewed calls for stricter gun laws and several of the surviving students have been in the forefront of that effort, often, eloquently, and always passionately, calling for ways to save the lives of students across the nation, which seemed to first sear the nation with the Columbine school killings in 1999.

Awaiting the signature of the Florida governor, there is legislation pending, which supporters state, that “If passed, the bill would raise the legal age for buying rifles from 18 to 21, impose a three-day waiting period on all firearms sales and allow qualified school personnel to be armed on campus,” reported National Public Radio on Wednesday.

This has been directly attributable to loud and vocal dissent from existing law by the parents, and surviving students of the school and which famously confronted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in a by now much viewed CNN special, where he was pressed to say that he would not accept donations from the National Rifle Association, but in turn, he avoided a response, saying instead that the NRA "buys into my agenda, I don’t buy into theirs," which . . . evoked jeers,” from the crowd.

Each time there is a mass shooting - and they are growing more frequent -  American reformers,and some lawmakers, try to write better gun control legislation, and each time their voices are diminished by slogans such as “People kill people,not guns,” and an effective lobbying effort directed at senators like Rubio, by the NRA, and others across the nation, and eventually, the voices are silent, or silenced.

An example: “Rubio was on the Senate floor to unveil his gun plan. He announced he would be introducing legislation focused on background checks. One of these is called the “Lie and Try” legislation, which requires the FBI to notify local law enforcement when someone who is prohibited from buying a gun tries to purchase one. Rubio is also backing a “gun violence restraining order,” which would allow the police to confiscate weapons from known threats and require schools to report potentially dangerous children to the police as well.

But none of these proposals are what the families of victims or survivors of the Parkland shooting want. They’ve rallied around banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and raising the minimum age to purchase a gun. These policies are not supported by the National Rifle Association and therefore, will not be supported by Sen. Rubio, who has advanced in his career will the help of $3,303,355 in NRA campaign spending.” 

Leadership from the  White House has been another source of of dissatisfaction, and President Trump’s statement at the recent meeting of the nation’s governor’s, following the shootings, where he said, ““I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon.”

This was only marginally better than what really riled the parents, and the surviving students, and much of the country, with his initial tweet: "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

President Trump is deeply entwined with the NRA, as they were largely responsible for helping him get elected. Spending more than three times the amount that they gave to Mitt Romney, when he was the GOP candidate running against Barack Obama, they spent $30 million, of a total of $55 million for the entire 2016 election, from the NRA, in their effort to defeat the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

This figure does not include the “above and beyond dollars” that were spent on voter mobilization and advocacy, or even the $176,350 given to the Republican Governors Association, or the $110,675 to the Republican Attorneys General Association..

Further muddying the waters are the durable allegations that Russia might have gone even further than previously thought, by directly contributing money to the NRA, to help defeat Clinton, whom they feared because of her strong support, among other things, for the sanctions against Ukraine.

The person accused of funneling the funds  is Alexander Turshin, a deputy general of Russia’s Central Bank, and who some say has mobster ties in the former Soviet Union. He is also a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also has been accused by other foreign governments as a money launderer, giving weight to some allegations that the Trump family has obtained much of their wealth by this route.

When the NRA recently met at their annual meeting, in Louisville, Ky, Donald Trump, Jr. met with Turshin, but Trump Jr’s lawyer, says that this was just small talk.

Or is it? In a January McClatchy Report these allegations have been the target of an FBI investigation. There has been no response by the NRA.

Collusion may be, if proven, a polite term for deeply treasonous behavior on the part of Trump and his family members, as evidenced by the loss of the security clearance of son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also met with Russian officials to form a back channel communications network outside of the existing structure, and knowledge of the U.S. government.

In an amazing statement the Republican commitee, on Monday, said that there was absolutely no evidence of collusion on the part of Trump, or his family.

Taking this even further throughout these allegations, is the way that American elections are handled, across the nation, who supporters are allowed to meet with, and who they aren’t, how much money is contributed, and by what means, and under what cover; from the well-known to those less well-known, and seemingly extended to those with dubious connections.

The Special Counsel Robert Mueller is working at a faster pace than previously thought possible, but also gives further pause when there was the recent discovery that Russia prevented the nomination of Romney as Secretary  of State, because of negative remarks that he made about Russia during his contest with Obama, for the presidency.

This fits too neatly, some say, with the now well established Intel that showed Russian opposition to Clinton, and her vast knowledge of Western European leaders and their wives, and a possible U.S. policy reaction to Russian economic hectoring, and bullying, with their provisions of gas to nearby countries.

Circling back to the NRA, their opposition to Clinton was vociferous due to her proposals to increase background checks on those purchasing guns, and preventing the mentally ill from buying them, among other safeguards she announced.

Again, on Monday, after a Washington Post reporter questioned the president's earlier segue from established NRA positions, he asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders whether he had “chickened out” in the face of pressure from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Sanders said Trump “hasn’t backed away” from his support for expanding background checks or raising the age limit on gun purchases, although neither was addressed in a plan the administration rolled out Sunday night.

According to the Hill, "Sanders made the case that Trump is focusing first on proposals that have “broad bipartisan support” or that could be accomplished “immediately” through the regulatory process or federal action.

She insisted that the president still supports raising age limits on gun purchases and expanding background checks, but said both would require more political pressure and further review before action can be taken.

“He can’t make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen,” Sanders said. “You have to have some congressional component to do some of these things, and without that support, it's not as possible.”

As Sanders became exasperated at the questioning she fell back on the old canard of beating up President Obama and his record, when she said: "“Let's not forget that the Obama administration had the White House and all of Congress for two years and didn't do anything."

Adding to the criticism that the White House has backed down under pressure from the NRA to change things that many want, such as banning bump stocks (used by the Las Vegas shooter) and expansion of background checks, Trump has asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to create a blur ribbon panel - an act that he has said in the past, as the Hill states, ". . . they are used by bureaucrats to kick the can down the road."

Updated 03.13.18