GOP senator urges Trump to set guidelines for gun legislation
Sen. Roy Blunt on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to provide details on what type of legislation he’d like to see in an effort to reduce gun violence.
The GOP senator from Missouri noted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the upper chamber won’t vote on bills Trump is unwilling to sign into law.
“The president needs to step up here and set some guidelines for what he would do,” said Blunt, a member of Senate Republican leadership. “I'm afraid what's going to happen here is what always happens, is we take this silly ‘if we don't get everything, we won't do anything.’”
A range of legislation has been discussed, some of it focused on firearms, other parts of it focused on mental health issues.
In August, back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio left at least 32 people dead — including the Ohio shooter — and last weekend, a gunman in Texas killed seven people and wounded more than 20 in a shooting rampage before being shot to death by police. Those attacks have led to increased outcry for Congress to act when it returns from summer recess this week.
Blunt suggested there are legislative options that would help provide earlier intervention for people with mental health issues and called for “treating mental health like all other health, something I’ve worked hard on.”
“There's a moment here where we can expand what we're already doing on that front,” he said.
