Trump falls for the media blitz… or at least appears to do so:
President Donald Trump took action on Tuesday to outlaw bump stocks like the one used in the Las Vegas shooting last fall.
‘I signed a memorandum directing the Attorney General to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,’ Trump said in the wake of a Florida massacre in which the killer did not use such a device.
Trump’s directive, which he pointedly brought up at a White House Medal of Valor ceremony, followed his press secretary’s announcement minutes before that the president had ordered his administration to look at ways it could unilaterally deter mass shootings like the one in Parkland.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also said that Trump had not closed the door on new gun controls, including an assault weapons ban that is unpopular with the president’s base.
The only thing the President should have said in response to the expected calls for gun control is this: “All federal gun laws are clearly unconstitutional. I am ordering a review of them and will put a proposal before Congress to legalize all firearms in accordance with the Second Amendment to the Constitution.”
What is the point of this sort of useless do-nothing gesture? It’s wrong, it’s senseless, it’s not going to accomplish anything positive, and it’s going to weaken Trump’s position. One of the most difficult skills to develop is the ability to do absolutely nothing when everyone else is losing their heads and demanding that SOMEBODY do SOMETHING!
That being said, I expect Trump will care more about the genuine outrage of his base than about the fake outrage of the media. Remember, the man makes mistakes, but he learns quickly from them.