In wake of shooting, Trump backs off new background checks & DOJ preps plan to execute mass murderers faster

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s daily Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

Over the weekend, a man in Texas opened fire on innocent people, hijacked a mail truck, and killed at least eight while wounding over 20. The suspect was shot and killed by law enforcement. He was fired from his job that morning, but the FBI said he was “already enraged” when he showed up for work that morning. Details are still coming out about the suspect, but we already know he had a criminal history going back decades.

The immediate political conversation, of course, went to gun control. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke used the opportunity to call for mandatory buybacks — i.e., confiscation with compensation — of people’s semi-automatic guns. Failed presidential candidate Eric Swalwell took the opportunity to ghoulishly mock good guys with guns for not stopping the attack. Rabidly far-left actress Alyssa Milano tried to dispute the idea that people have a God-given right to self-defense; she failed.

President Trump, now apparently far less bullish on new gun control than he was immediately after the El Paso shooting, said that new background check laws “would not have stopped any of it,” referring to shootings over the past several years. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice has instead responded with draft legislation to expedite the executions of convicted mass murderers as part of a larger legislative package to be determined.

Congress, however, is still in recess until next week, and the weekend’s attack is certain to put more energy and momentum behind lawmakers’ gun control efforts when both chambers return.

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