The NRA has made it clear that they do not back any specific plan to raise the age for individuals wishing to purchase assault rifles from 18 to 21. “The NRA doesn’t back any plan,” spokeswoman Dana Loesch said during an interview yesterday.
There have been sharp outcries from parents, lawmakers and especially students for the enactment of tougher gun laws in the wake of a deadly school shooting that claimed the lives of seventeen people in Parkland, FL, nearly two weeks ago.
President Trump has called for tougher gun measures in the wake of the shooting, including a banning of certain accessories that increase the firepower of firearms and changing the eligibility age of gun purchasers from 18 to 21.
President Trump has said repeatedly over the last several days that the NRA, usually loathe to support laws seen as infringing on Second-Amendment rights, would support his initiatives. “The NRA will back it and so will Congress,” the President said of the age limit measure in particular. He also tweeted earlier in the week of the NRA’s leaders’ and their support of gun-control measures, “They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Loesch’s statement seems to contradict those sentiments.
The President has also indicated support for a bill that would bolster the nation’s firearm background check system. The so-called FixNICS bill would incentivize states and federal agencies to keep the National Instant Criminal Background Check System updated with the latest information about individuals who should be prevented from purchasing firearms.
Even that measure faces an uphill climb in Congress however as a Senate version does not contain a “reciprocity” measure that would all require all fifty states to honor concealed handgun permits. Such a version would likely fail in the House.
Conversely, a version of the age-limit bill that included the reciprocity measure passed in the House last November by a vote of 231 to 199, but Democrats in the Senate have vowed to filibuster it.