Dear Mr. Trump,

I hope you’re having a wonderful vacation golfing up a storm, while the 31 people recently killed in two mass shootings are buried. It was so nice of you, in fact, to provide those celebratory thumbs-up photographs! Who wouldn’t want to endure the grief of losings of a loved one if they just be in the picture with a smiling, self-congratulatory president?

But, instead of golfing, you could be doing all of the following now:

• Demand that McConnell call the Senate back into session NOW to engage with House-passed gun violence bills or use your own power, under Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution to convene the Senate yourself due to the extraordinary circumstances of our country’s affliction with gun violence;
• Demand that Congress enact universal background checks;

 

(In fact, as pointed out by the Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt today, in February you threatened to veto the House bill if it ever reached your desk.)

 

• Demand that Congress ban assault-style weapons, as it had done from 1994-2004;

(In fact, again as pointed out by Mr. Hiatt, you’ve promised to the NRA that no gun violence protection bills will ever be enacted while you’re president.)

• Demand that Congress ban large-capacity magazines;
• Demand that Congress enact red flag bills, that allow law enforcement officers to remove guns where there are credible threats of mental illness or domestic abuse.

A concerned, emphatic president could do all of these things, to show he or she was serious about gun violence prevention, but you won’t.

A concerned, empathic president would give up a few rounds of golfs and spend his time browbeating recalcitrant Republican legislators into doing what the vast majority of the Americans want, but you won’t.

Right now, the slaughtered and their families and friends are crying out in anguish and asking “Why not?”

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger