Trump flips on gun control to support national 'concealed carry' policy

Sabrina Siddiqui and Ben Jacobs in Washington
Saturday 19 September 2015 00.06 BST

Donald Trump, once an advocate of control over the sale of some types of firearms, has come out forcefully in favor of a laissez faire approach to gun control, declaring there should be a “national right to carry” concealed weapons across the nation.

The Republican presidential frontrunner’s gun policy, which also argues against expansions of background checks for gun owners – and chimes with the campaign aims of the National Rifle Association – is only the second policy announcement since announcing his campaign in June.

The policy paper released on Friday also included support for mandatory minimum prison sentences for violent crimes, drawing from a Virginia-based experimental program from the 1990s named Project Exile which Trump suggested be implemented across the country. The program would push for anyone found to be illegally in possession of a firearm to be sentenced to a minimum of five years in federal prison.

Trump said the program, criticized by Barack Obama’s administration, was in fact a success, decreasing murders committed with firearms and clearing felons from the streets, adding: “We need to bring back and expand programs like Project Exile and get gang members and drug dealers off the street.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]