Donald Trump to meet with NRA about gun bans for those on no-fly list
Donald Trump says he's meeting with the National Rifle Association, America's foremost pro-gun lobbying group, on the issue of banning people from terror watch lists from buying and owning firearms.
The presumptive GOP nominee, who the NRA endorsed last month at their Leadership Forum in Kentucky, tweeted about the meeting early Wednesday.
The announcement comes days after the nation's deadliest mass shooting, when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire at an Orlando gay club early Sunday, killing 49 people and injuring dozens of others.
Mateen, who had previously been investigated by federal officials for ties to known terrorists, nevertheless passed his background check to purchase a handgun and an assault rifle a week or so before the Orlando massacre. According to a U.S. intelligence source, he was not listed on a current terror watch list.
The NRA adamantly opposes to such restrictions on gun buying, believing that using a terror watch list as a basis for barring purchases infringes on Second Amendment rights.
The gun lobby reiterated its stance on Twitter just days after the Orlando shooting.
On Wednesday, the NRA tweeted out that they were "happy to meet" with Trump but did not appear to soften on the issue:
Trump has said during the presidential campaign that he backs a gun-buying ban for anyone on a federal watch list.
Back in November, Trump told ABC News in an interview about allowing firearm purchases: "If somebody is on a watch list and an enemy of state and we know it's an enemy of state, I would keep them away, absolutely."
And in another interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" following the San Bernardino shooting, Trump addressed the question of whether or not he would support a ban on anyone buying guns if they were on a no-fly list: "I would certainly take a very look at it," he said in December. "I would. I'm very strongly into the whole thing with Second Amendment. But if you can't fly, and if you have got some really bad -- I would certainly look at that very hard."
Trump has broken from the NRA's agenda in the past -- in 2000, he wrote, "I support the ban on assault weapons and ... a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun."
And after the 2012 Sandy Hook slaughter resulted in the deaths of 20 schoolchildren and teachers, Trump praised President Obama for a speech calling for stricter gun laws.
Since the Orlando shooting, Hillary Clinton, Trump's presumptive general election opponent, has called for both a renewal of the expired assault weapons ban and a tightening of the terror watch loophole.
"If the FBI is watching you for suspected terrorist links, you shouldn't be able to buy a gun with no questions asked," Clinton said in a speech in Cleveland Tuesday. "You shouldn't be able to exploit loopholes and evade criminal background checks by buying online or at a gun show. Yes, if you are too dangerous to get on a plane, you are too dangerous to buy a gun in America."
The two viewpoints from the general election contenders are both backed by America's' public opinion. In the latest CBS News poll, conducted in the days following the Orlando shooting, a majority of Americans (57 percent) support stricter gun laws. Nearly nine in ten Americans support conducting background checks for every gun purchase. And about 57 percent of Americans favor banning assault weapons altogether.