CHUCK SCHUMER/DEMS/GUNS/LEGISLATION/NRA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, put the brakes on Republicans’ quick embrace of ‘red flag’ laws as a response to last weekend’s gun violence, saying on Wednesday [8-7-19] that any gun-related legislation moving through the Senate must be accompanied by a House bill requiring background checks on all gun purchasers. Red flag laws allow the authorities to obtain a special type of protective order — known as an extreme risk protection order, or E.R.P.O. — to remove guns from people deemed dangerous. Republicans, including President Trump, are coalescing around the concept, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is drafting a bill to develop a federal grant program to help states pass and carry out such laws…Mr. Trump, on his way to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, where back-to-back massacres over the weekend left 31 people dead, told reporters he was open to expanding background checks for gun purchases — a surprising development, given that the National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun lobby, and many Republicans are vehemently opposed.”
–Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Democrats Warn That Federal ‘Red Flag’ Law Would Not Be Enough,” The New York Times online, August 7, 2019