Republicans remain silent on gun control a week after Trump shooting | Republicans

More than a week after Donald Trump’s attempted assassination with an assault weapon, his political supporters and colleagues in the Republican Party have remained silent on the issue of tightening America’s notoriously lax gun control laws.

The intransigence comes against the backdrop of a US election already deeply marred by fears of political violence and the possibility of civil unrest, before a 20-year-old gunman fired an AR-15-style rifle at the former president, wounding him and two others and killing a rallygoer at an event in Pennsylvania.

Opposition to any form of gun reform, such as an assault weapons ban, has become a litmus test for Republicans seeking public office, experts say. The week since the shooting has not seen any significant statements from Republican figures on gun control.

“The Republican Party is adamantly opposed to any further gun reform, and any Republican who opposes that view is exposing himself to a primary challenge,” said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and gun rights expert.

It marks a shift from the aftermath of previous assassinations, or attempted assassinations, of people like former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, when lawmakers from both parties approved legislation to tighten gun laws.

After John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan and three others, including presidential spokesman James Brady, in 1981, Brady and his wife, Sarah, led a successful effort to establish a federal background check system for potential gun buyers, which federally licensed dealers were eventually required to use. Reagan, a Republican, voiced support for the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and former President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993.

Clinton also endorsed a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994 with significant bipartisan support, including from Reagan and some congressional Republicans.

But to gain their support, lawmakers limited the ban to 10 years, and Republicans let it expire in 2004.

Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to kill Trump at a campaign rally on July 13 in Pennsylvania with an assault weapon, an AR-15-style rifle, which has been used in numerous mass shootings in recent decades, including in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and in 2017 at a music festival in Las Vegas.

Gun control groups like Brady: United Against Gun Violence and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America have since advocated for an assault weapons ban, but Republican lawmakers have opposed those efforts.

Winkler and other experts don’t expect Republican intransigence to change despite Trump’s popularity.

“If the shooting of 20 kindergartners” at Sandy Hook “doesn’t prompt a reconsideration of gun safety reform, then it’s not clear what will, and I think from a conservative perspective the answer is generally: more guns,” Winkler said.

The National Rifle Association, which has led efforts to oppose gun control reform, declined an interview request, but a spokesperson said in a statement: “Given the information shared so far, there is not a single gun control law that could have prevented this heinous and cowardly attack — including so-called ‘universal’ background checks. But, as we all know, that won’t stop the gun control lobby and its allies from engaging in the usual calls for gun control.”

A Trump campaign adviser also told Reuters that if the Republican were elected, “we would see a continuation of support and defense of the Second Amendment.”

Kris Brown, chairman of the Brady campaign, disagrees with the NRA’s claim that stricter gun laws, such as banning assault weapons, could not have prevented the shooting at the Trump rally.

Crooks “chose this weapon because he was sitting on top of a building that was about 400 feet away from him and the only way he could have shot the president and killed someone else and injured someone else was with an assault weapon. So by definition, if we had an assault ban in place, yes, that could have made a difference,” Brown said.

Joshua Horwitz, a professor of gun violence prevention and advocacy at Johns Hopkins University, expects Republicans in Congress to focus on the Secret Service and questions about how the shooter was allowed to get so close to Trump rather than discussing the weapon used.

“Republicans in the United States House of Representatives will not hold hearings on an assault weapons ban,” Horwitz said.

Interestingly, the Republican National Committee platform, released about a week before the assassination attempt, mentions in a preamble defending the “right to keep and bear arms,” ​​but otherwise makes no mention of gun policy.

It’s the first time since the 1970s that the party has not included gun issues in its platform, according to Robert Spitzer, an assistant professor at William & Mary Law School who has studied gun policy for decades.

But Spitzer does not see this as an indication of a new openness to strengthening gun laws.

“I think it’s purely pragmatic for Trump to avoid controversial issues that might reduce the support he would otherwise get,” Spitzer said.

Gun control advocates have made progress at the state level, however. In recent years, states including Illinois and Delaware have passed laws banning assault weapons. Nine states now prohibit the purchase and possession of such weapons, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

In 2022, the federal government also passed legislation with the support of Democrats and some Republicans that included measures to expand background checks for people ages 18 to 21 looking to buy a gun and prompted states to pass red flag laws, which allow people to request temporary confiscation of a person’s firearms if that person is deemed a risk to themselves or others.

“There’s a clear plan to build a strong gun violence prevention infrastructure, to pass laws and change policies” and to spend more money on “community violence intervention, so I’m optimistic about where the movement is going,” Horwitz said. “I would say I’m pessimistic that this particular shooting is going to change the conversation.”