NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Trump backs off call for raising minimum age to buy gun
Reiterates plan
to strengthen
background checks
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
White House on Sunday pledged to
help states pay for firearms training
for teachers and reiterated its call
to improve the background check
system as part of a new plan to
prevent school shootings.
But in a move sure to please the
gun lobby, the plan does not include
a push to increase the minimum age
for purchasing assault weapons to
21, which President Donald Trump
had repeatedly championed.
Instead, a new federal commis-
sion on school safety will examine
the age issue, as well as a long list
of others topics, as part of a longer-
term look at school safety and
violence.
The plan forgoes an endorse-
ment of comprehensive background
checks for gun purchases, which
the president, at times, seemed to
embrace.
In a call with reporters Sunday
evening, administration officials
described the plan as a fulfillment of
Trump’s call for action in the wake
of the school shooting in Parkland,
Florida, last month that left 17 dead.
“Today we are announcing
meaningful actions, steps that can
be taken right away to help protect
students,” said Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos, who will chair the
commission.
DeVos said that “far too often,
the focus” after such tragedies “has
been only on the most contentious
fights, the things that have divided
people and sent them into their
entrenched corners.” She described
the plan as “pragmatic.”
The plan was immediately paned
by gun advocates, including the
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence. “Americans expecting
real leadership to prevent gun
violence will be disappointed and
troubled by President Trump’s
dangerous retreat from his
promise,” said Avery Gardiner, the
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
In this March 10 photo, President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Atlantic Aviation in
Moon Township, Pa. Weeks after prodding lawmakers to stand up to the National Rifle Associa-
tion,Trump is backing off his call for increasing the minimum age to buy an assault weapon — an
idea strongly opposed by the NRA.
group’s co-president.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., called the
plan “weak on security and an insult
to the victims of gun violence.” In
a statement, he added, “When it
comes to keeping our families safe,
it’s clear that President Trump and
Congressional Republicans are all
talk and no action.”
The plan is less ambitious than
the changes Trump advocated in
a series of listening sessions in
the weeks after the massacre. In
televised meetings with lawmakers,
survivors of recent school shootings
and the families of victims, Trump
made a strong case for arming
teachers, but also increasing the age
for purchasing long guns.
“I mean, so they buy a revolver
— a handgun — they buy at the age
of 21. And yet, these other weapons
that we talk about ... they’re allowed
to buy them at 18. So how does that
make sense?” told school officials
last month. “We’re going to work
on getting the age up to 21 instead
of 18. “
White House spokesman Raj
Shah had said earlier Sunday in an
interview with ABC’s “This Week”
that “the president has been clear
that he does support raising the
age to 21” and that that would be a
“component” of the announcement.
But Trump has also spoken
repeatedly in recent weeks with
the heads of the powerful National
Rifle Association, which considers
increasing the age of purchase to be
an assault on the Second Amend-
ment. The NRA on Friday sued
Florida over a new gun law signed
by Republican Gov. Rick Scott that
bans the purchase of firearms by
anyone under the age of 21.
Instead, the issue will be one of
a list of topics to be studied by the
DeVos commission, which will then
provide recommendations to the
president. Administration officials
said they had not set a deadline for
the commission’s recommenda-
tions, but expected they’d made in
under a year.
Trump’s embrace of another
commission appears at odds with
comments he made Saturday night
mocking their use, at least when it
comes to fighting drug addiction.
During the meetings, Trump also
advocated arming certain teachers
and school staffers, arguing that
gun-free schools are “like an invi-
tation for these very sick people” to
commit murder.
“If you had a teacher who was
adept at firearms, they could end the
attack very quickly,” he has said.
As part plan, the White House
has directed the Justice Department
to help states 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 White House
did not immediately say how much
money would be made available.
Trump also called on states to
pass temporary, court-issued Risk
Protection Orders, which allow
law enforcement to confiscate
guns from individuals who pose
risks to themselves and others, and
temporarily prevent them from
buying firearms. And he called for
the reform and expansion of mental
health programs, as well as a full
audit and review of the FBI tip line.
The bureau has been criticized for
not following up on warnings about
the suspect in the Parkland school
shooting.
During the often free-wheeling
conversations, Trump also seemed
to voice support for “universal”
background checks, which would
apply to private gun sales and those
at gun shows, instead of just from
licensed dealers. He also raised
eyebrows by suggesting that law
enforcement officials should be
able to confiscate guns from those
they deem a safety risk even before
a court has weighed in.
“Take the guns first, go through
due process second,” Trump said.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the
White House press secretary, later
walked back both suggestions,
saying “Universal means something
different to a lot of people.” She said
the president wanted to expedite the
court process, not circumvent it.
Instead, the White House reiter-
ated its support for improvements
to the National Instant Criminal
Background Check through the
“Fix NICS” bill, which would
penalize federal agencies that don’t
properly report required records
and reward states that comply by
providing them with federal grant
preferences.
The White House called on
Congress to pass a second bill
that would create a federal grant
program to train students, teachers
and school officials how to identify
signs of potential violence and
intervene early.
Bids to curb health care costs offer little more than talk
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— It started as a bipartisan
attempt to curb soaring
health care premiums.
But Congress’ effort to
stabilize the nation’s insur-
ance markets is faltering
amid escalating demands by
each party and erratic posi-
tions by President Donald
Trump. Democrats want
bigger federal subsidies for
consumers under President
Barack Obama’s health care
law while Republicans, still
fighting that statute, aim to
relax its requirements and
win abortion restrictions.
The bickering could
collapse the whole effort,
with each side blaming
the other when next year’s
expected higher insurance
rates are announced — just
weeks before Election Day,
on Nov. 6.
Last week, Sen. Patty
Murray of Washington, a
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
In this Feb. 6, file photo, dawn breaks over the Capitol
in Washington.
lead Democratic negotiator,
called GOP demands on
abortion limitations “a
complete nonstarter.” A
spokeswoman for Rep. Ryan
Costello, R-Pa., sponsor of
the House GOP package,
said if Democrats want to
oppose the effort “by playing
abortion politics, then shame
on them.”
Some Democrats think
they’d reap political gains if
the talks collapse since polls
show the health care statute
is widely popular and the
public would largely fault
Republicans if consumer
BRIEFLY
Russia ‘highly likely’ behind
ex-spy’s poisoning
LONDON (AP) — Russia is “highly
likely” to blame for poisoning a former spy
and his daughter with a military-grade nerve
agent, British Prime Minister Theresa May
said Monday, demanding that Moscow give
a explanation or face “extensive” retaliation.
May told lawmakers in a strongly worded
statement that without a credible response
from Russia by the end of Tuesday, Britain
would consider the attack on Sergei Skripal
and his daughter in a quiet English city “an
unlawful use of force by the Russian state
against the United Kingdom.”
“There can be no question of business as
usual with Russia,” she said, without saying
what measures Britain might take.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova dismissed May’s
allegations as a “circus show in the British
Parliament.”
Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter,
Yulia, remain in critical condition after being
found unconscious March 4 in Salisbury. A
police detective who came in contact with
them is in serious but stable condition.
May said British scientists have
determined that Skripal and his daughter
were poisoned with Novichok, a class of
nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union
near the end of the Cold War.
She said it was “highly likely” the
substance came from Russia, and there were
two possible explanations.
“Either this was a direct act by the
Russian state against our country, or the
Russian government lost control of this
potentially catastrophically damaging nerve
agent and allowed it to get into the hands of
others,” she said.
May said Britain had given the Russian
ambassador in London a deadline of Tuesday
to explain which version is true.
May has been under mounting pressure
to hit Russia with sanctions, expulsions and
other measures in response to the poisoning,
the latest in a string of mysterious mishaps to
befall Russians in Britain in recent years.
GOP report: No coordination
between Trump and Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans
on the House Intelligence Committee have
completed a draft report concluding there
was no collusion or coordination between
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and
Russia, a finding that has enraged Democrats
on the panel but is sure to please the White
House.
After a yearlong investigation, Texas
Rep. Mike Conaway announced Monday
that the committee has finished interviewing
witnesses and will share the report with
Democrats for the first time on Tuesday.
Conaway is the Republican leading the
House probe, one of several investigations
on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
Conaway previewed several of the
report’s conclusions.
“We found no evidence of collusion,”
Conaway told reporters Monday, suggesting
that those who believe there was are reading
too many spy novels. “We found perhaps
some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings,
inappropriate judgment in taking meetings.
But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or
someone else like that could take this series
of inadvertent contacts with each other, or
meetings or whatever, and weave that into
sort of a fiction page turner, spy thriller.”
The public will not see the report
until Democrats have reviewed it and the
intelligence community has decided what
information can become public, a process
that could take weeks. Democrats are
expected to issue a separate report with
much different conclusions.
costs spiral skyward.
“Either Republicans help
stabilize the market or they
own these premium and
deductible increases,” said
Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.
“And I’d be glad to help
crucify them if they don’t
want to do something very
reasonable.”
The effort forces Repub-
licans to choose between
trying to avert bad news about
premiums shortly before
elections or standing by their
opposition to anything that
could be viewed as propping
up “Obamacare.”
Trump hasn’t clarified
things for his party. In a
single day last October, he
bounced from praising one
plan as “a very good solu-
tion” to labeling it “bailouts
to insurance companies.”
Signs indicate insurance
prices will likely continue
upward. So try containing
those increases, lawmakers
crafted two bipartisan bills
last year.
One by Sens. Susan
Collins, R-Maine, and Bill
Nelson,
D-Fla.,
would
provide billions to states
for reinsurance. The funds
would help insurers afford
covering some of the sickest,
costliest customers.
Another by Murray and
Sen. Lamar Alexander,
R-Tenn., would revive federal
payments to carriers to
subsidize discounts they give
lower-earning consumers for
costs like deductibles and
copayments. Trump halted
the subsidies as part of his
effort to upend Obama’s law
after courts said Congress
hadn’t properly approved the
money.
Providing
ammunition
for the sponsors, an anal-
ysis released Monday by
Oliver Wyman Actuarial
Consulting, a private firm,
estimated that if Congress
enacted
the
proposals,
premiums could be at least
40 percent lower than if no
legislative action was taken.
Obama’s statute requires
insurers to provide those
cost reductions, which last
year cost the government
$7 billion to help around 6
million people.
In other changes since last
fall, the new GOP tax law
has erased the tax penalties
enforcing the “Obamacare”
individual mandate, which
requires most people to buy
coverage.
Trump has also proposed
making it easier for insurers
to sell policies that last less
than a year and have fewer
consumer protections than
Obama’s statute imposes,
like required coverage for
people with pre-existing
conditions.