Trump and the NRA

by Deacon Blues

No one should be surprised if Donald Trump "gets" the NRA to suddenly drop its opposition to banning those on the DHS terrorist watch list from getting guns. And no one should be surprised if Wayne Lapierre and the NRA suddenly agree with banning those on the list from getting guns. This is the kind of manipulation that both Trump and the NRA would foist upon the electorate to underline the image of Trump the Dealmaker.

If would however immediately make things terrible for House and Senate Republicans, who have steadfastly refused to do this, even as the bodies pile up. Doing so would allow the DSCC and DCCC to blast GOP incumbents this fall for being more obstructionist than even the NRA, which is a "no-win" situation for those GOP incumbents. And because Trump is all in this for himself, he would carelessly hang these GOP incumbents out to dry without a second thought.

Yet Democrats should be ready to counter any Trump/NRA maneuver with a demand that if Trump was truly concerned about public safety, and if he was really a tough-guy negotiator, he would also get the NRA to drop its opposition to having local law enforcement agencies know who in their jurisdictions buys assault weapons. Unless Trump is ready to take on the NRA to get it done, then everything else is just well-orchestrated puffery between Trump and the NRA.

It's easy to push the NRA into keeping guns from brown people; its just that the GOP has never had the balls to do so. It's far harder to make the GOP care as much for local law enforcement as they do for the NRA.