Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.com
At a gathering in Michigan hosted by America First Policies, Mike Pence made it clear that Trump is going to solve school shootings.
“President Trump said it well,” Pence said. “No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school.”
“School safety is now the top priority of the Trump administration,” Pence continued, to thundering applause. “And I’ll make you a promise, Michigan: Working with federal and state leaders, we’re going to take strong action to strengthen background checks.”
But Pence’s promise was undercut by the fact that just hours previously, Trump huddled with National Rifle Association officials in the Oval Office.
So far, Trump’s position on gun control has been all over the map, but one thing has stayed constant: Every time the NRA has directly appealed to him, he has listened to them over anyone else.
For example, Trump threw away the idea of raising the age limit to purchase military-style weapons of war after a lunch meeting with the NRA earlier this week — although Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to pretend he had not.
It should be noted that Pence himself has little moral authority on the matter, as he did everything in his power to make guns as easy as possible to acquire and carry, both as a congressman and as governor of Indiana.
So when Pence promises that he is going to work to “strengthen background checks,” which the NRA has consistently opposed, he is writing our nation, and the families and friends of school shooting victims, a check that he knows cannot be cashed.
Activists will no longer stay silent on guns. The time has come for real action, and Pence cannot talk it away with empty promises.
