***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
After the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers came together to craft legislation with the goal of making sure the federal background check system was up to date since the shooter should have been barred from buying a gun but authorities didn’t add him. And since the Parkland, Florida shooting, the bill has picked up steam. But on Monday’s CBS Evening News, the network seemed to pooh-pooh the idea of better background checks and preferred a gun ban.
“The White House said today President Trump is open to the possibility of supporting bipartisan legislation to strengthen the federal background check system,” announced anchor Jeff Glor before reporter Chip Reid ripped into it.
Reid recalled the events that led up to the church shooting and noted how “the bill before Congress is intended to put systems in place to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again.” But after playing a clip of a White House spokesman promoting the plan on Fox and Friends, the CBS reporter deflated hopes for the proposal and hyped Democratic efforts. “In fact, though, it's not at all clear the bill would have prevented the Florida school shooter from buying his gun. Many Democrats are calling for a new ban on so-called assault weapons like the AR-15,” he said.
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