National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch, said the powerful gun rights advocacy organization would not support raising the age requirement to purchase a long gun from 18 to 21, and does not back a ban on bump stock modifications that turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one.
The positions are at odds with President Donald Trump's recent statements in the wake of the Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. He has expressed support for more stringent background checks, banning bump stocks and raising the long gun age limit.
"Well the NRA has made their position incredibly clear," Loesch told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday's "This Week" when asked if she would back a raise to the minimum age. "The five million members of the NRA have made their position incredibly clear."
She added, "I know that people are trying to find daylight between President Trump and five million law abiding gun owners and law abiding gun owners all across the United States."
"These are just things that he’s discussing right now," she said of Trump. "I think that it’s great that as president, he had all of these individuals, all of these constituents come into the White House, he had this listening session, he’s really looking for solutions, he wanted to hear what they had to say, and that’s what he’s doing."
In regards to a ban on bump stocks, such as the modification used by the shooter during the Las Vegas massacre in October, Loesch said it's the job of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Stephanopoulos pressed Loesch and asked, "The ATF says they don’t have the authority right now to ban bump stocks, the president’s now said he wants those to be banned, will the NRA back that?"
"The NRA doesn’t back any ban, the NRA has asked the ATF to do its job and make sure that these classifications are consistent," Loesch replied. She also said she wished more focus was put on the Broward County Sheriff Department which has come under sharp criticism after as many as four officers did not enter the school during the shooting.
On Saturday night in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump said a "great bill" would seen be passed that would "perhaps" have something to do with age because the current laws now "don't make sense."
"It doesn’t seem to make sense that you have to wait until you’re 21-years-old to get a pistol, but to get a gun like this maniac used in the school, you get that at 18," Trump said. "I mean that doesn’t make sense and frankly, I explained that to the NRA, they’re great people."
Trump's change of heart on guns comes after 17 people were killed in the Parkland shooting, and a national outcry for action has gained traction and has been led by the students who survived the tragedy. But it's still unclear how concrete these proposals are, or how well they would do in the GOP-controlled Congress.
Among the other proposals, Trump has also talked of allowing teachers or other faculty to arm themselves, something the NRA suggested it supports.
"I think that if a school and if parents and teachers voluntarily choose to be armed, I think that’s something that schools are going to have to come up with and determine for themselves," Loesch said on Sunday.
The NRA and Trump are still closely tethered, and slight disagreements are unlikely to change much of their relationship. However, Trump has said that something must be done in the wake of the most recent mass shooting the country has dealt with, which is a much different approach than conservatives before him. But Congress has been gridlocked on nearly every issue, so it's still not clear if anything will be done.
Watch Loesch's full interview below:
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