Democratic candidates slam Trump, NRA for inaction on guns

DES MOINES, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidates placed responsibility for inaction on gun violence Saturday in the hands of President Trump and the National Rifle Association, in the face of broad national support for some gun control measures.

“If most Americans insist that something be done and it doesn’t happen, it means we need fundamental reform,” Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said at a presidential forum on gun violence in Des Moines.

The forum comes a week after a pair of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shook the nation and reignited a debate surrounding gun rights in America. Seventeen candidates were due to speak and take questions from members of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, some of whom teared up while describing the ways gun violence had affected their families.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in response to a question on how to avoid stigmatizing mental illness when the president has repeatedly highlighted that issue in response to mass shootings, called Trump a liar. Most people with a mental illness are not violent.

“It’s just President Trump lying to the American people again, being inauthentic about what the problem is … trying to distract, and trying not to take responsibility for what is happening in this nation,” she said.

Several candidates have released gun control policies in the week since the shootings. On Saturday, the Democrats largely agreed on the broad contours of the policy debate, emphasizing the need to close background check loopholes, ban assault weapons and fund research into gun violence.

Three more moderate candidates — Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar — all called on gun owners to get involved in the gun...