Large majorities of both Republicans and Democrats support expanded background checks on private gun sales, including sales at gun shows,
Donald Trump boasts on his campaign website.
It’s an odd statistic to find as part of Trump’s
second amendment policy platform, since Trump himself opposes expanded background checks on gun sales.
It’s not clear why Trump’s website would tout the broad bipartisan support for a policy he and the National Rifle Association both oppose.
But the inclusion of a pro-gun control talking point in Trump’s policy platform once again raises the question of how well a candidate who
once supported an assault weapon ban – and has
fluctuated on almost all of his major policy positions – will deliver on his promised defense of gun rights if he is elected.
On his website, Trump’s “Constitution and Second Amendment” platform notes, regarding background checks, that “we need to fix the system we have and make it work as intended. What we don’t need to do is expand a broken system.”
Then, a little further down the same page, Trump’s platform
cites and links toPew Research survey results that found that “85% of the public – including large majorities of both Republicans (79%) and Democrats (88%) – favored making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks. There was also bipartisan support for laws to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing guns.”
These statistics would seem like a better fit for the
policy platform of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, who actually
supports expanding federal background check laws to cover private gun sales, including
private sales at gun shows and online.
A campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment
