Trump visits shooting survivors

Public debates about racism and gun control heated up across the country as President Donald Trump visited shooting survivors in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday. Weekend mass shootings in those cities claimed 31 lives and injured dozens of others. The Dayton shooter, 24-year-old Connor Betts, had known violent tendencies, leading some to call for laws that would allow the government to take away guns from dangerous individuals.

What, if anything, is going to change? So-called “red flag” laws are gaining bipartisan backing in the U.S. Senate, and the president has indicated he supports them, too. “We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms and that if they do those firearms can be taken through rapid due process,” he said on Monday.

Dig deeper: Not everyone welcomed the president on his visits Monday, and some blame him for promoting racist ideologies that may have inspired the shooters. WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky writes that “a back-and-forth now about who turned debate into warfare is not helpful.”