Donald Trump will propose arming school staff and raising the minimum age to purchase certain firearms to 21 in a school safety proposal the administration will release on Sunday, a White House spokesman said.
The proposal on age limits for gun purchases will put the president on a collision course with the National Rifle Association, which endorsed him and donated to his White House campaign.
Sunday’s announcement came two days after the NRA filed a lawsuit against a measure signed into law by Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, that included raising the age limit on buying a gun from 18 to 21.
The deputy White House press secretary, Raj Shah, told ABC’s This Week Trump was also likely to back a bipartisan Senate bill that Republican John Cornyn and Democrat Chris Murphy introduced to improve federal compliance with criminal background checks.
“There’s going to be a series of proposals,” Shah said. “Some will be legislative, some will be administrative and some will be recommendations for states as well as a task force to study this issue in more depth and make more additional policy recommendations. So it’s going to be consistent with what the president has talked about.”
During his White House run, Trump touted his support for gun rights. Since the shooting last month in which 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida, he has offered conflicting statements on gun policies, at times calling for new restrictions and at other times rowing back.
Student survivors of the Florida shooting have mobilized to call for stricter laws. A former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school is accused of using an assault-style rifle to carry out the massacre.
Shah did not say if Trump’s proposal to raise the minimum age for buying certain guns would involved supporting federal legislation or encouraging states to act. Many Republican lawmakers say such moves should be left to states.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
