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Trump says gun negotiations going ‘very slowly’

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday poured cold water on prospects for a bipartisan compromise on gun legislation, even as Attorney General William Barr circulated a draft plan on Capitol Hill to expand background checks for gun sales.

In a Fox News interview that aired Thursday, Trump said no deal is imminent, more than six weeks after mass shootings in Texas and Ohio killed more than 30 people.

“We’re going very slowly,” Trump said, adding that while he doesn’t want “bad people” to have weapons, he won’t allow any plan to move forward that takes guns away from law-abiding people or restricts Second Amendment rights.

A proposal being floated by Barr would require background checks on all commercial gun sales, including at gun shows.

The leaked proposal caused an uproar on Capitol Hill as lawmakers wondered whether Trump was poised to support expanded background checks in the face of opposition from fellow Republicans and the National Rifle Association.

But speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he returned home from California late Wednesday, Trump said the plan was just one of many ideas under consideration.

“Those are ideas that we’re talking to Republicans, Democrats, everybody about. Some they like, some they don’t like. Just a series of concepts,” Trump said.

Trump told Fox that a call by Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke to confiscate assault-style rifles has made it more difficult for Republicans to reach agreement on gun control.

“Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, and we’re not going to allow it to be used against your fellow Americans anymore,” O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, declared during a Democratic presidential debate last week.

“Dummy Beto made it much harder to make a deal,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “A lot of people think this is just a way of taking away guns,” Trump told Fox, adding that he won’t let that happen.

Asked about the proposal to expand background checks for gun purchases, Trump distanced himself, saying the document was put out by Barr.

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