Reid J. Epstein and Maggie Astor

Trump’s remarks — which swung from early morning tweets suggesting he would be amenable to expanding background checks to a televised statement three hours later echoing the National Rifle Association’s talking points on gun violence — were less decisive than those he made after the massacre in Parkland, Florida, 18 months ago, and nothing came of those, either.

In the immediate aftermath of past mass shootings, advocates have pressed Congress for new legislation. But the major gun control groups largely skipped that step this weekend, or offered halfhearted rebukes to Republican senators blocking a background checks proposal the House passed in February.

Instead, as far as federal action is concerned, they are looking straight ahead to the next elections.

“As has been consistent with his character, the president is full of empty promises and seems poised to take no action whatsoever,” said Peter Ambler, the executive director of Giffords, the gun control organization founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. “He offers excuses, not action or results, and clearly what’s going to happen here is that this is going to become a defining issue in the 2020 election.”

Trump has said nothing about gun laws since the El Paso and Dayton shootings that he did not also say after Parkland — and, in fact, he said much more back then.

In a forum with Attorney General Pam Bondi of Florida and other officials in February 2018, shortly after the Parkland massacre, Trump unequivocally endorsed background checks and red-flag laws, which allow the temporary removal of guns from people judged to pose an imminent threat to themselves or others.

“We will take action, unlike, for many years, where people sitting in my position did not take action,” he said. “They didn’t take proper action. They took no action at all. We’re going to take action.”

He claimed that he had spoken with top NRA officials and told them Congress would have to “toughen up” gun laws, and that he was sure the group would be on board.

The NRA was not on board. Its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, and top lobbyist, Christopher Cox, visited the White House to remind Trump of their position. Within days, Trump had changed his public stance.

“We’ve been down this road before,” said John Feinblatt, the executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control organization funded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. “Remember, after Parkland he talked about background checks, and the next morning Wayne LaPierre marched into the White House and that discussion evaporated.”

Having seemingly learned his lesson about crossing the NRA, Trump this weekend adopted the gun rights group’s tactics. He said little beyond expressing condolences and praising emergency responders on Twitter.

The president’s first substantive remarks came Monday morning, when he, on Twitter, offered to trade background checks for “desperately needed immigration reform.” A former NRA official said such an effort, had Trump followed up on it, would have served only to depress his gun-rights-loving base by making them look expendable while infuriating Democrats who would be unlikely to accept the offer.

By the time he appeared before cameras, Trump had dispatched with the background checks proposal, instead blaming, as has the NRA, video games, mental illness and the internet for the recent gun massacres.

(There is no evidence that the gunmen in the weekend massacres were influenced by video games or suffered from mental illness. And violent video games are common in many countries that do not experience mass shootings at anywhere near the level the United States does. The El Paso gunman’s manifesto railed against immigration and denounced the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” )

Feinblatt said he had no interest in a deal that paired background checks with a Trump-approved immigration package.

“To make Trump’s narrow form of immigration reform a bargaining chip for gun safety legislation is just a cynical move to guarantee that nothing happens,” he said.

The NRA left the door open Monday to red-flag laws, also known as extreme-risk protection orders. “It has been the NRA’s long-standing position that those who have been adjudicated as a danger to themselves or others should not have access to firearms and should be admitted for treatment,” the group said in a statement.

While the NRA has long expressed openness to red-flag laws in principle, it has rejected most specific proposals as having insufficient due-process protections.

As the El Paso shooting was unfolding, more than 2,000 activists were at a hotel in Washington’s Woodley Park neighborhood for a training organized by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an arm of Everytown.

On Saturday night, hundreds of them marched two miles to the White House — while Trump was crashing a wedding at his New Jersey golf resort — and then to the empty Capitol, chanting, “El Paso!” and “Not one more!”

“My guess is that all those activists left even more fired up to make change because of what happened that day,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in an interview Sunday.

Supporters of gun control are already running in some prominent races.

Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, is challenging Sen. Martha McSally in Arizona. Amy McGrath, whom the Giffords organization endorsed in a House race in Kentucky last year, is challenging the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has refused to allow a vote on the background checks bill the House passed. And Moms Demand Action is looking at Senate races in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina and Texas, where Republican incumbents could be vulnerable.

The strategy of focusing on 2020 rather than trying to get legislation through the Republican-controlled Senate was only reinforced by the results of last year’s midterms.

For six years after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Congress passed no major gun restrictions despite a full-scale mobilization by advocacy groups and, at one point, a filibuster by Murphy. But Democrats pushed a universal background checks bill through the House earlier this year within two months of taking control.

“The awful, tragic reality is that these mass shootings end up making our movement stronger,” Murphy said. “I wish that weren’t how it worked, but it is, and the end result will be at some point that the makeup of Congress changes and the laws change.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/politics/trump-gun-control.html" id="3086d009-4db7-3694-ad41-501d79778f8e">The New York Times</a>.

Gun Control Groups, Having Given Up on Trump, Look to 2020

WASHINGTON — By the time President Donald Trump gave a speech about the weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, on Monday, gun control advocates had long given up on his ability and desire to address gun violence in America.

The only solution, Biden told reporters at a Labor Day event in Cedar Rapids, is to defeat Republicans in the elections 15 months away — “flat-out beat them,” as he put it.

Biden, the Democratic front-runner, has made bipartisanship a theme of his campaign and talked about working with Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell. But Biden took the unequivocal stand on expanded background checks and other measures when asked if there was room to reach a compromise with McConnell, the Senate majority leader.

“None, none on this. I think this is no compromise. This is one we have to just push and push and push and push and push,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, I think this is going to end with some of them defeated.”

Biden was among several Democratic presidential candidates who demanded over the Labor Day weekend that congressional Republicans enact new background check legislation when Congress returns to work next week.

At a town hall-style meeting Sunday in Raymond, New Hampshire, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont bemoaned the “dysfunctionality of Congress” on gun control measures. And Monday, several candidates took unbending stands on background checks while talking to reporters across Iowa and New Hampshire, as they sought out voters and news media cameras for the start of the fall campaign season.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who was also campaigning in Cedar Rapids on Monday, said background checks were already “a very middle of the road, rather conservative compromise” and signaled that Democrats needed to stand firm on proposals for background checks, which are expected to be part of a gun control debate in Washington after the mass shootings in El Paso, Midland, and Odessa, Texas; and in Dayton, Ohio.

“We’ve got to get out of a defensive crouch,” Buttigieg said of Democrats. “The overwhelming majority of the American people are with us, and the congressional GOP can only reject the American people’s desires for so long before they’re going to pay a political penalty for that.

“We’ve got to get something real out of this,” he said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who, like Biden and Buttigieg, holds a mix of progressive and moderate views, said background checks were “the minimum that we should do.”

“Then we should go to something that will make the biggest difference for the mass shootings,” she said, such as a new assault weapons ban.

With their remarks, the Democrats were seeking to add more pressure to President Donald Trump, who indicated openness to background checks after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, and McConnell, who has promised a Senate debate this fall. The Democratic-led House has already passed background check legislation this year, but the National Rifle Association has pressured Trump and other Republican leaders to back off new steps on background checks.

For the most part over the holiday long weekend, the Democratic candidates struck upbeat notes at events as they exchanged hearty handshakes and nice-to-meetchas and dropped by picnics and ice cream socials in Iowa and New Hampshire.

There was relatively little sniping among the candidates. At his three events Sunday, Sanders did not once mention his two top rivals, Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, or any of his other competitors. The weekend had more of a laid-back feel: In Raymond, Sanders was joined by Ben Cohen of Ben &amp; Jerry’s ice cream, who joked that a Sanders administration would guarantee “a pint in every freezer and a sundae in every bowl.”

The 2020 Democratic nomination remains very much up for grabs heading into Labor Day week, which traditionally marks the start of a fall campaign season when presidential primary fields winnow and more voters start picking favorites.

“These candidates have been going to the fairs and other events with ready-made crowds,” said Bret Nilles, an Iowa Democrat who leads the party in the Cedar Rapids area, after introducing Bennet at an event Sunday. “Now it’s going to be up to them to see how big a crowd they can draw on their own.”

As the Democratic field stands now, 20 Democrats are still running, but only 10 of them are in strong enough shape to qualify for the next debate, on Sept. 12.

Of that group, just three candidates — Biden, Sanders and Warren — have consistently been in the double digits in recent polls. A fourth, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, has dipped in some polls but has shown an ability to achieve breakout moments, as in her June debate performance, and remains a broadly appealing campaigner. Buttigieg and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey are building out ground forces in Iowa, which votes first Feb. 3, and Klobuchar is also making a push in that state.

At the same time, the field’s shape at summer’s end looks not unlike it did at spring’s end. Biden entered the presidential race in late April as the Democratic front-runner; he remains in that position, having withstood summer challenges from second- and third-tier contenders.

But Biden has yet to come under sustained attacks from his closest competitors at this point, Warren and Sanders, who have large numbers of deeply enthusiastic supporters.

In Portland, Maine, on Sunday night, Sanders drew cheers and shouts from hundreds of supporters and admirers like Frank Medrano, whose voice echoed off the walls of the State Theater in the exact cadence of an “amen” or “preach it” called out in a church.

“I am here tonight, obviously, to ask for your very important support,” Sanders said.

“You’ve got it!” Medrano bellowed.

“We are going to take on the power structure of the United States of America,” Sanders said.

And, in a moment that made Sanders’ mouth twitch in what might have been a smile: “We love you, Bernie!”

Medrano, 61, a retired actor living in Peaks Island, Maine, seemed to be buzzing with adrenaline in an interview after Sanders’ rally. Although he said he liked some of Warren’s policies and admired her for setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he described Sanders as the only candidate in the race who was truly “beholden to the people.”

“I think to elect anyone else is a foolish venture,” he said.

How Sanders, Biden and Warren compete and contrast themselves with one another is one of the biggest questions of the autumn phase of the campaign. That minicontest among the leading candidates will also reveal whether there is enough oxygen for any of the 17 other hopefuls to catch fire in the five months before the Iowa caucuses.

Biden’s summer has hardly been a smooth ride. Booker and Harris attacked his record on race. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York did so on gender issues before dropping out last week. Buttigieg, who is 37 years old, has built his campaign on an unsubtle age contrast with Biden, who is 76.

Yet more than four months after he opened his campaign, Biden remains the leader. Few of the Democratic county leaders and party activists who populate Iowa’s political class say they are thrilled with the former vice president, and many say there’s little enthusiasm for his candidacy, yet he remains atop almost all polls of Democrats, in Iowa and elsewhere.

Still, a belief that Biden’s campaign will crater permeates the other presidential campaigns. Eventually, officials with rival campaigns say in private conversations, voters will find Biden an unsteady hand, his gaffes too risky in a contest with President Donald Trump.

In two weeks, the top three candidates will appear on a debate stage for the first time when the top 10 Democrats gather in Houston. ABC’s moderators are certain to draw contrasts between Biden and Warren, who have clashed on economic issues across the past three decades. Sanders, though ideologically more similar to Warren, shares a base of lower-educated and lower-information voters in the Democratic contest with Biden.

Amid this top-three dynamic, all of the Democratic presidential candidates will find themselves facing new competition for voters’ attention.

Gone are the state and county fairs, with hordes of would-be voters awaiting candidate speeches from soap boxes.

Instead, savvy campaigns are carefully bracketing the Sept. 12 debate with voter-rich events. Most candidates will speak this Saturday at the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention, which will be a magnet for party activists and organizers. Then, after the debate, some candidates are bound to be scheduling their weekend Iowa stops around the schedules of the University of Iowa and Iowa State University football teams. Expect to see a few candidates tailgating at the annual Hawkeye-Cyclone game Sept. 14 in Ames.

This article originally appeared in

'No Compromise,' Democratic Hopefuls Say About Gun Control

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that there was no space to compromise with congressional Republicans on gun control legislation after the nation’s latest spate of mass shootings that left 53 dead in August.

“None, none on this. I think this is no compromise. This is one we have to just push and push and push and push and push,” he said.

At a town hall-style meeting Sunday in Raymond, New Hampshire, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont bemoaned the “dysfunctionality of Congress” on gun control measures. And Monday, several candidates took unbending stands on background checks while talking to reporters across Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who was also campaigning in Cedar Rapids on Monday, said background checks were already “a very middle of the road, rather conservative compromise” and signaled Democrats needed to stand firm on proposals for background checks.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday there was no space to compromise with congressional Republicans on gun control legislation after the nation’s latest spate of mass shootings that left 53 dead in August.

Two of the leading candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, were set to return to the campaign trail Monday afternoon after a few days’ rest. The third top candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, began a three-day swing Sunday across New Hampshire and Maine, emphasizing the concerns of union workers in particular.

At his three events Sunday, Sanders did not once mention Biden, Warren or any of his other competitors. The long weekend had more of a laid-back feel: In Raymond, New Hampshire, Sanders was joined by Ben Cohen of Ben &amp; Jerry’s ice cream, who joked that a Sanders administration would guarantee “a pint in every freezer and a sundae in every bowl.”

In Iowa on Monday morning, Mayor Pete Buttigieg toured a Cedar Rapids bridge with local officials to discuss climate change and the federal government response to the city’s 2008 flood. Buttigieg was then scheduled to appear at openings of two field offices, the first of 20 new offices his campaign said it will open in the state. And he, Biden and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Michael Bennet of Colorado were expected to swing by a Labor Day event in Cedar Rapids as well.

“These candidates have been going to the fairs and other events with ready-made crowds,” Bret Nilles, an Iowa Democrat who leads the party in the Cedar Rapids area, said after introducing Bennet at an event Sunday. “Now it’s going to be up to them to see how big a crowd they can draw on their own.”

How Sanders, Biden and Warren compete and contrast themselves with one another is one of the biggest questions of the autumn phase of the campaign. That mini-contest among the leading candidates will also reveal whether there is enough oxygen for any of the 17 other hopefuls to catch fire in the five months before the Iowa caucuses.

2020 Democrats Fan Out Across Iowa and New Hampshire on Labor Day

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The 2020 Democratic primary race this Labor Day weekend was more about hearty handshakes and nice-to-meetchas, picnic drop-bys and ice cream socials, than sharp-elbowed politicking or thundering speeches as many of the 20 candidates sought out voters and news media cameras across Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Reid J. Epstein and Maggie Astor

Articles written by the author

Gun Control Groups, Having Given Up on Trump, Look to 2020

'No Compromise,' Democratic Hopefuls Say About Gun Control

'No Compromise,' Democratic Hopefuls Say About Gun Control

2020 Democrats Fan Out Across Iowa and New Hampshire on Labor Day