The Donald Trump campaign says it is looking for a debate on guns that would be “big.”
Trump has been in hot water over the past few days over his stance on gun rights, and this latest round of controversy comes after Trump repeatedly criticized former President Barack Obama’s policies during a speech at the NRA convention.
The Trump campaign is now calling for a “big debate” on guns, as well as an overhaul of gun control laws, that it says would make the country safer.
“If we’re going to change our laws, if we’re gonna change our gun laws, then we have to change them big league,” Trump said during a rally in Orlando on Tuesday night.
“Big league, and I mean that.
We’re going have to take it from the top down.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended its stance on guns during the course of its investigations into the 2012 shooting deaths of four people in Newtown, Connecticut.
In June, President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions both said they did not support banning assault weapons or high capacity magazines, and on Monday, Sessions announced that the Department of Justice would no longer pursue the case of the gunman who killed 20 children and six adults in the Newtown shooting.
But after a slew of recent mass shootings, the White House appears to be changing its stance, and the campaign says Trump should have been given the chance to weigh in on gun policy during a debate at the National Rifle Association convention.
“We need a debate that we can take back the debate from the Obama administration, and we can have a debate where we can make it a big debate on the issues that matter most to the American people,” Trump campaign manager Jason Miller said in a statement.
“Trump should be a strong voice for the American public in a debate about gun violence.
We need that debate.”