Trump to Declare a National Emergency for Wall, Pelosi Says She Can Do the Same for Gun Violence

In American politics today, there is a sense of animosity that has not existed within recent memory, perhaps not since Vietnam. This animosity focuses around one person, Donald Trump. Now that Trump has lost the House of Representatives, Speak Nancy Pelosi has been sure to counter Trump at every point possible.

Earlier this year, during the American government's shutdown, Nancy Pelosi undermined Trump by delaying the all-important State of the Union Speech. Trump countered by grounding the military planes Pelosi would have needed to visit several countries on a diplomatic trip. This tit for tat political game for between Trump and Pelosi is unlikely to end until at least the 2020 elections.

This week, a new chapter has unfolded in their political struggle. After Nancy Pelosi forced Trump's hand to end the border wall shut down as a result of hundreds of thousands of government employees not receiving their pay, Trump has stated that he will declare a national emergency to gain access to another USD 8 billion for the construction of the wall between the US and Mexico.

Nancy Pelosi responded that such a use of a national emergency would give future access to Democrats to combat gun violence. There is no doubt that gun violence is a huge epidemic in the United States. As U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York stated this week, "Every day in America, on average, 34 people are murdered with a firearm, and more than 183 people are injured in an attack."

A reminder of this fact came to the forefront this Thursday, Valentine's Day in the US, which marks the 1-year anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida which claimed the lives of 17 innocent people, 14 of which were children. However, Nancy Pelosi's warning that Trump has opened the door for a national emergency against gun violence raises some questions.

First, what does a national emergency against gun violence look like in the United States? Is she implying that a future Democratic President could order a heavy-handed measure such as going door to door and confiscating people's guns? That surely will not go over well with the enormous pro-gun population residing in the United States.

Perhaps she means a softer measure such as providing incentives for people to relinquish their guns? Those have been implemented in the past with very limited success. It could be an empty threat, just another part of the tit for tat game that the two politicians have been playing since the 2018 midterm elections.

Regardless, many people, particularly in Trump's political base, believe that America and its Second Amendment are inseparable. With that said, any measures taken by Pelosi or another Democratic leader in the future to confiscate guns are going to be a tricky maneuver to execute.

Is it possible? Well if anything is to be said about the current political climate in the United States, it's that yes, anything is possible. But such a move couldn't happen until Trump is out of office, so we may not be seeing anything of the sort any time soon. However, Nancy Pelosi is right in one regard: gun violence is an issue in the United States, and Trump is setting a precedent over what a 'national emergency' is and what it can be used for. As with all things, we will just have to wait and see.

(Opinion expressed in the article belongs to author and not Devdiscourse)