Trump Sends Defiant Message to Congress on Bump Stocks: 'I Don't Care...I'm Writing It Out Myself'
President Donald Trump pledged Monday that he will work to ensure that bump stocks become illegal, declaring that he’ll ban them himself if necessary.
Addressing a meeting of state governors, Trump delivered remarks about guns in the wake of the Florida school shooting earlier this month, which claimed the lives of 17 people.
“We have to have action. We don’t have any action,” Trump said, explaining that after mass shootings take place, people talk about how to prevent such tragedies, but meaningful reforms are rarely implemented.
“It happens, a week goes by, ‘let’s keep talking,’ another week goes by, ‘let’s keep talking.’ Two months go by, all of a sudden everybody’s off to the next subject,” the president stated. “Then when it happens again, everybody’s angry, and ‘let’s start talking again.'”
This cycle of inaction followed by more tragedy has got to stop, Trump said, before proclaiming that bump stocks have to go.
“Bump stocks — we’re writing that out. I’m writing that out myself. I don’t care if Congress does it or not, I’m writing it out myself,” he said, eliciting applause from some of the governors.
The president went on to say that bump stocks should be put int “the machine gun category, because that’s essentially what it is. It becomes a machine gun.” Bump stocks are going to be very hard to come by in the future, he indicated.
Just last week, Trump took action on bump stocks, a firearm accessory that significantly increases the rate of fire. As The Western Journal reported, he directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ban the accessory.
“Just a few moments ago I signed a memo directing the attorney general to propose regulations that ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” the president said Tuesday. “I expect these regulations to be finalized … very soon.
However, Trump’s proposal does not have the support of the National Rifle Association.
“The NRA doesn’t back any ban,” NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch said Sunday, according to Reuters.
On Monday, though, Trump told the assembled governors not to “worry about the NRA.”
“Don’t worry about the NRA, they’re on our side,” he stated. “And you know what, sometimes if they’re not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while.”
“They are doing what they think is right. But sometimes we’re going to have to be very tough, and we’re going to have to fight them,” the president added.
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