President Donald Trump's claim his administration has done "more than most" on curbing gun violence is facing challenges by his critics and gun experts, who point to his number of deregulatory moves that have made it easier to obtain a gun, Politico reported Wednesday.
"This president has in a very intentional, sweeping way made it easier for people to access firearms, not more difficult," vice chair of the House Gun Prevention Task Force, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., told Politico.
"He's systematically gone and undone all the protections that were put in place to try to limit the ability of dangerous people to access firearms."
The Trump administration notably revoked an Obama administration regulation that made it hard for people with mental illnesses to buy guns, which was enacted after the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut elementary school shooting.
The regulation had blocked those receiving Social Security Administration mental disability payments from buying guys by adding a reported 75,000 names to the national database, according to the report. Also, the administration has narrowed the definition of "fugitive," reducing the number of names among those banned from buying guns.
"We have done much more than most administrations," President Trump said Sunday in his first response to the weekend's mass murders in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. "[It's] really not talked about very much, but we've done, actually, a lot. But perhaps more has to be done."
Among the moves alluded to:
- The administration did give schools millions to combat gun violence after the Parkland, Florida high school shooting.
- Backed the increase of penalties for failing to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System after a church shooting in Texas.
- Banned bump stocks after the 2017 Las Vegas country music concert shooting, the deadliest mass shooting event in modern U.S. history that left 58 dead.
"On a scale of 1 to 100, they're about a 2," longtime Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms official William Vizzard told Politico of the restrictions.
Center for American Progress' vice president of gun violence prevention Chelsea Parsons rejected the Trump administration claims after the shootings that left at least 31 dead.
"The response has largely parroted the talking points of the NRA," she told Politico.
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