Trump’s potential support for Fix NICS draws criticism

By Christen Smith

President Donald Trump gives the thumb’s up on improving federal background checks. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Advocates on both side of the gun debate criticized the president’s potential support for legislation bolstering the federal background check system in the wake of a shooting at a high school in southern Florida.
Gun Owners of America Executive Director Erich Pratt expressed disappointment over the White House statement and encouraged President Donald Trump to eliminate gun free zones instead — a position Trump has touted since the 2016 campaign trail.
“While the nation still has yet to see an actual statement by President Trump on the Fix NICS bill, we would hope that he would not join anti-gun Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer in supporting it,” Pratt said in an email to Guns.com Tuesday. “We strongly agree with the President’s prior position on eliminating gun-free zones.  And we hope that President Trump will veto any congressional response to the recent tragedy in Florida, which does not repeal the dangerous gun-free school zones law.”
The Fix NICS Act, filed a week before Thanksgiving, incentivizes states and federal agencies to promptly report disqualifying records to the FBI so firearms don’t fall into the wrong hands — and punishes those who don’t.

Source: Guns.com