After the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio this summer, Donald Trump said he would push for reform to gun laws in the US.
Now, however, with the 2020 election looming only a year away, his administration has quietly ceased its efforts to push for gun control laws, a possibly divisive issue for Mr Trump’s right-wing base, according to several sources who spoke to the Washington Post.
“President Trump quietly moved gun control to the side and let it be replaced by breaking news,” GOP donor Dan Eberhart told the Post. “I suspect that was the plan all along.”
Through August and September the Trump administration was talking to members of Congress and outside groups about crafting tighter background check laws and instituting possible “red flag” rules that would allow police to confiscate weapons for people considered at risk.
In September, CNN reported that a proposal for expanded background checks was circulating around Capitol Hill, but Mr Trump did not say whether or not he supported it.
But since then, Mr Trump has been quiet on the issue, and, according to the Post conversations with legislators have dropped off. The National Rifle Association (NRA), the pro-gun lobbying group, says it has not spoken to Mr Trump since September, indicating that its leadership is no longer concerned about impending restrictions on firearms.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told reporters that the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry is diverting energy away from passing legislation, like gun reform.
Reporting from Vox.com shows that in 2019 alone there have been 350 mass shootings that killed 395 and left 1,416 wounded.
Last year, after a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Florida left 17 dead, students organised nationwide protests to call for stricter gun laws, drawing hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.
The US has the most lax gun laws of any developed nation, and studies have shown that stricter gun laws are associated with lower rates of firearm-related deaths and injuries.
Every presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries has committed to pushing for stricter gun laws if elected to office.
