As students and families head to Washington, D.C. and other cities across the country for the March for Our Lives, President Trump has a few choice words for the marchers. Trump seemed truly shocked by the horrific violence of the Stoneman Douglas school shooting. For a fleeting instant, talked sensible gun regulation, background checks and even made Dianne Feinstein beam gleefully. This time, the president was going to Make Things Happen! Then he met with the NRA.
Trump met a couple times with Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox, the head poobahs of the National Rifle Association and they quickly turned him around. Unsurprisingly, the change in the president from his freewheeling meeting about gun violence — or “school safety,” which seems to be code for “we don’t want to talk about gun control” — to Trump’s comments after his NRA meeting was remarkable.
Suddenly, there wasn’t even enough support to raise the legal assault weapon-buying age to 21. Forget about those background checks and the Manchin-Toomey bill, let’s focus on arming teachers and coaches of all stripes. (The NRA just released a video lamenting the fact that the murdered football coach at the Florida high school didn’t have an AR-15 handy.) My optimism is fading, but change at the state level, fewer gun owners and a mobilized youth movement still offer a healthy glimmer of hope.