Trump’s claim about prosecuting ‘a record number of firearms offenses’

Last year, we enacted the Stop School Violence and Fix NICS acts into law, providing grants to improve school safety and strengthening critical background checks for firearm purchases. At my direction, the Department of Justice banned bump stocks. Last year, we prosecuted a record number of firearms offenses. But there is so much more that we have to do.”

— President Trump, speaking from the White House after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 5, 2019

In responding to the weekend attacks in two major cities, President Trump touted what he described as “bipartisan” efforts to deal with gun violence. We were curious about one of his claims — that the administration in 2018 prosecuted “a record number of firearms offenses” — and we wondered about what he left off his list.

After all, the National Rifle Association was a big backer of Trump in the 2016 election, spending about $30 million either supporting Trump or attacking Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The president, who has pushed such NRA goals as eliminating gun-free zones at schools, has addressed the group’s annual meeting three times, more than any other president. (The last president to attend the NRA’s annual meetings was Ronald Reagan in 1983.)

View the complete August 6 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.