Trump Warns Of Potential Impasse With Democrats On Guns :: 09/17/2019

At this point, I really can’t help but feel like we’re going to end up stuck with some degree of gun control whether we want it or not. Democrats are pushing for it, President Trump has said he feels we need some degree of gun control, and we’re not hearing enough in the Senate about how Republicans won’t vote for it.

It looks like the stars are aligning and we’re going to get new gun laws.

Or, are we? It seems Trump is warning of a potential impasse with Democrats over the issue.

President Donald Trump signaled Monday that he may not reach an agreement with Democrats on stricter gun measures after weekend discussions with party leaders.

“The big questions are,” the president tweeted, “will they ‘move the goalposts’ and, is this just a ploy to TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY?

“I hope NOT on both counts,” Trump continued, “but I’ll be able to figure it out!”

…

But the Democrats warned the president that any gun legislation that did not include universal background checks “will not get the job done,” Politico reported Monday, making it more difficult for negotiations between Trump and senators to succeed.

The stalemate continues to cloud President Trump’s ultimate position on the background-check issue, CNN reports.

“Even in private, Trump has not revealed a final position,” the cable network reports, citing “people familiar with the discussions.”

This is probably muddied by presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Beto has declared that he is, indeed, coming for our guns. Of course, he’s also polling in the single digits and isn’t currently filling a chair in Congress, so why care what he said?

Probably because two senators, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, have endorsed this plan. They are in Congress at the moment and could begin pushing for mandatory buybacks as part of the gun control effort.

While the plan has gotten some pushback, it’s been more about how this isn’t the time of O’Rourke’s plans, not the substance of it.

In other words, it’s pretty clear that they do want to come for those guns. Trump is right to suspect that they might “move the goalposts” to grab more and more of our gun rights away from us. While I don’t think Democrats are remotely ready to go to that extreme–look at the pushback Beto has gotten–let’s also not dismiss the possibility that they’ll push for far more than anyone on this side wants to give them.

They’ve already laid out that they’re not interested in anything that doesn’t include universal background checks, regardless of what anyone else wants. They’re also clear they want more red flag laws on the books in the individual states.

But they also want a magazine capacity ban. They couldn’t get the votes for an assault weapon ban, so they target the magazine capacity issue in hopes they can land that one. Trump, however, hasn’t signaled any interest in that. Is this the hill they’re going to try and die on?

I’m actually curious as to whether Democrats will really deal with Trump or if they’ll continue to push and push for more until no deal can be reached. Personally, I welcome that possibility and hope Democrats do overstep their bounds. The downside, though, is that they might push and push and stop at the point just before crossing the line and we end up with far more than a couple of laws that are pains but otherwise navigable.

It’s a dangerous game, but I do hope that we get the impasse Trump warns about, because then maybe congressional Democrats will get their heads out of their rears and start looking at potential solutions that don’t require infringing on individual liberties.

Yeah, I know, but a guy can dream.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/09/17/trump-warns-potential-impasse-democrats-guns/