President Trump is quietly considering imposing federal age restrictions on the purchase of weapons like the AR-15, which was used in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting last week, Axios reports. "Nothing has been decided, or is close to decided, on the age question," Axios adds, based on a conversation with a person close to the president, although Trump has reportedly told people in his orbit that he does not believe high schoolers should be able to buy guns.
As the laws stand now, federally licensed dealers cannot sell weapons like a rifle or shotgun to a person under 18, or a handgun to someone under 21. Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, bought two of at least 10 of his firearms following "normal protocol for Florida" at Gun World of South Florida in Deerfield Beach, CNN reports.
Trump announced Tuesday that he is directing the Justice Department to propose a ban for bump stock firearm modifications. Separately, Florida lawmakers denied a motion to bring an assault weapons ban to a vote Tuesday night.
Trump meets Wednesday for a listening session with high school students and teachers at the White House. Teens have widely pushed for gun reform after the Parkland shooting, with 17-year-old survivor David Hogg insisting: "Without action, ideas stay ideas and children die." Jeva Lange
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday pushed back on calls for a second referendum on Brexit, the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.
May particularly condemned remarks from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said this week a new vote should be considered if "none of the other options work." May accused Blair of "seek[ing] to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum," arguing "Parliament has a democratic duty to deliver what the British people voted for."
May's proposed Brexit deal with the EU has stalled, lacking support to pass a House of Commons vote. Bonnie Kristian
The North Korean government on Sunday issued a typically dramatic statement condemning the United States' sanction regime and suggesting denuclearization plans are in jeopardy.
Pyongyang accused the U.S. State Department of being "bent on bringing [North Korea]-U.S. relations back to the status of last year which was marked by exchanges of fire," warning that additional U.S. sanctions would be America's "greatest miscalculation" and would "block the path to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula forever."
This comes as Pyongyang observes the seventh anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong Il and the rise to power of his son, current leader Kim Jong Un. Bonnie Kristian
Negotiators representing nearly 200 nations in Katowice, Poland, on Saturday agreed to universal greenhouse gas emissions limits intended to mitigate global climate change.
"It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical," said Polish economist Michal Kurtyka, who is leading the United Nations negotiations. "Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together," he told the assembled delegates. "You can feel proud."
U.S. negotiators sought to label coal a possible source of clean energy but also pushed for transparency and rules which apply equally to all participant nations. "Overall, the U.S. role here has been somewhat schizophrenic — pushing coal and dissing science on the one hand, but also working hard in the room for strong transparency rules," Elliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions told The Associated Press. "[T]he U.S. pushed harder than nearly anyone else for transparency rules that put all countries under the same system, and it's largely succeeded." Bonnie Kristian
