Instead of raising the minimum age for buying long guns to 21, the Trump Administration has other plans that are aimed at stopping school shootings, the White House announced Sunday.
The new recommendations include a full audit and review of the FBI tip line. This follows reports that calls came into the FBI tip line warning about 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, prior to his shooting and killing 17 people last month at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
The administration also announced that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would lead a federal commission on school safety to study the proposal of raising the minimum age for purchasing long guns to 21.
The commission would look at a “wide range” of ideas in order to ensure that “no student or family should ever have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook ever again,” FOX News reported that DeVos said in a statement.
The White House also directed the Justice Department to support states to partner with local law enforcement to provide “rigorous firearms training to specifically qualified volunteer school personnel,” said Andrew Bremberg, director of the president’s Domestic Policy Council.
The administration also confirmed Trump’s support for a congressional measure known as Fix NICS, which helps local officials improve efforts to enter data into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and the congressional STOP School Violence Act, which enhances school security and affords some subsidy for such efforts.
Trump also favors states passing temporary, court-issued Risk Protection Orders that would give law enforcement the legal right to seize guns from people who pose risks to themselves and others. It would also stop them from buying guns, at least temporarily.
Trump is asking for better management between mental health care, school officials and law enforcement.
Trump also supports expanded background checks, including those at gun shows and private sales.
“Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump has said.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, has said the President wants to expedite the court process, not circumvent it.
