The White House has a photo of Trump easing gun restrictions for the mentally ill but, oddly, won't release it


In his speech Thursday about Wednesday's mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, President Trump focused on mental illness, after earlier tweeting about the "mentally disturbed" guy who murdered 17 people. Exactly a year earlier, Congress had passed a bill nullifying a rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental illness, and Trump signed it two weeks later. A White House photographer took photos of Trump signing the bill in a closed-door ceremony, CBS News reported Thursday, but it has declined 12 requests to release the photo to the public.
On MSNBC Thursday night, Rachel Maddow found this to be a curious anomaly. "You have seen a gazillion photo ops of President Trump signing all sorts of things, right?" she said. "Except for the bill he signed that makes it easier for mentally ill people to access guns. ... It's almost like they don't want to admit that the first materially significant legislation this president signed was specifically and only designed to get more guns into the hands of more seriously mentally ill people."
It's not clear that presumptive Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz would have been among the 75,000 people with diagnosed serious mental illness placed on the federal database blocking gun sales, but Trump and his fellow Republicans are the ones focusing on mental illness after this and other mass shootings. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), for example, was the lead Senate sponsor of the gun and mental illness law Trump signed, and this is what he had to say Thursday. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warming
Under the Radar Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase
-
September 14 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to Trump
Speed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raids
Speed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raid
Speed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'
Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearing
Speed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mount
Speed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own list
speed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battle
Speed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants