Gun owners react to Trump's stance on gun control
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As the debate over how to prevent school shootings has continued, President Trump has proposed several responses. He's endorsed raising the minimum age for buying certain firearms, tighter background checks, and arming teachers.
A new CBS News poll shows that while nearly two-thirds of Americans support stricter laws on gun sales, including an increasing number of Republicans, there's more division when it comes to arming teachers.
CBS News' David Begnaud met with three gun owners in Charlotte, North Carolina, to get their perspectives.
David Begnaud: Show of hands, who thinks teachers should carry guns?
Ellen Prince: I think teachers should carry guns in the appropriate places.
Begnaud: Ok, you don't, why?
Jason Fyffe: No, I don't. Teachers open up themselves every day to allow to teach their students, so emotions are flying. I do not believe teachers should be required to if it's their choice then I believe they should have a choice to do so but not to forcibly say we need to arm teachers in school.
Begnaud: The president wants to consider maybe raising the age from 18 to 21 where you'd be allowed to buy an assault rifle. What do you all think?
Prince: You can raise the age to 21 but if-- I believe if a young man is allowed to serve his country at the age of 18, he should be able to buy an assault rifle.
Begnaud: Tricia, you own a gun range and you own a whole lot of guns. What do you say on this one?
Tricia Sisson: Honestly, I agree with Ellen. I don't know that somebody is more capable or less capable if they're three years older to carry an assault rifle or to carry a modern sporting rifle and use it appropriately. I believe we need to fix the background system.
Begnaud: What bothers you about the current set up?
Sisson: You run a background check, you do everything that you're supposed to do as a gun shop owner and you might be selling to somebody who should not have gun, like someone who is not mentally competent to handle a firearm because the reporting agency hasn't done their job. I think one other thing that we need to do and this will not necessarily make me popular with other gun owners is to close the gun show loophole. I truly believe that the process is not followed in gun shows.
Begnaud: The gun show loophole means I don't have to come into your shop to buy a gun from you. I can just go to a gun show and buy it off someone else.
Sisson: Exactly.
Begnaud: The president is now saying things about gun control that's surprising some people. Is it disappointing any of you?
Sisson: Sandy Hook happened and nothing got fixed, and Las Vegas happened and nothing got fixed and all of these events happened and nothing gets fixed. I think he's under pressure to fix something, right? Take action of some sort because it hasn't been done in the past and he is a man of action.
