Montini: Donald Trump flip flops, kissing up (again) to NRA on gun regulation

A couple of senators in the room warned us that President Donald Trump would reverse himself within a few days.

They were wrong.

The flip flop only took a day.

Trump had met with members of Congress on live TV and seemed to embrace elements of gun regulation that Republicans and the National Rifle Association (which supported Trump’s election to the tune of $30 million) have been vehemently against.

Talking the talk, but not ...

Expanded background checks – perhaps even universal. Raising the age to purchase weapons. Creating a process to remove weapons from potentially dangerous people.

Trump even went beyond what gun regulation advocates want – and beyond the U.S. Constitution – suggesting that some guns be taken away without due process of law.

The president’s supporters were stunned.

He told the group of senators and representatives, “Some of you people are petrified of the NRA. You can’t be petrified. They have great power over you people, they have less power over me.”

Democrats were skeptical.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said, “I’ve been with the president in meetings where he made similar promises. Stay tuned. My advice is hope for the best, don’t be surprised if he changes his mind in 48 hours.”

Yep, saw this coming

Likewise, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said, “I’m afraid what we’re going to see is an exact repeat of the pattern we saw before, where the president has a wonderful and constructive and open and bipartisan meeting on immigration, and 48 hours later, rejects a strong bipartisan deal.”

Boom.

On Thursday night Trump met with NRA executive Chris Cox, who tweeted afterward:

And then Trump himself tweeted:

And so the onus for fixing our gun violence problem once again slipped out of the hands of responsible – elected – grown-ups and into the hands the survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and the teenagers across America who have teamed up with them.

A much more responsible and clear-thinking group.

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