As Trump visits Louisville, Fischer pushes for gun control on CNN, MSNBC, NPR

As President Donald Trump visited Louisville, Mayor Greg Fischer paid a visit to the national airwaves to push for federal gun safety laws. 

Fischer appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday, a day after he learned a sit-down meeting with the president on the issue wouldn't be possible while he was in town. Shortly after Air Force One touched down in Louisville, Fischer was a guest on CNN. And later in the day, he appeared on NPR's "All Things Considered."

"Washington is behind America on this issue, and they need to catch up," Fischer said on CNN.  "We just need some courage from the U.S. Senate, some cover from the president. … That’s just a start. America doesn’t want incremental reform, we want breakthrough reform."

The mayor's message was much the same as what he told Trump in a letter on Monday: "We need action."

On "All Things Considered," asked what he would have told Trump in a sit-down meeting, Fischer said: "The first message is: Be not afraid. This is a mainstream issue right now."

Read more:Trump visit draws protesters and supporters to downtown Louisville

Trump visited Louisville on Wednesday to speak to an AMVETS national convention at the Galt House downtown, before going to the Seelbach Hotel and attending a private fundraiser for Gov. Matt Bevin's reelection campaign. 

Fischer had requested a meeting but was told it wouldn't be possible because of the president's tight schedule.

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Tuesday that there's hope, however, that the president may meet with some mayors from across the country next month in Washington, D.C.

Fischer dodged a chance to slam Trump for the missed meeting when "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough asked him why the president wouldn't meet.

"Let's focus on the big issue," Fischer told Scarborough. "Obviously, he's got a really busy schedule here. The mayors will be in Washington in early September, and we hope to meet with him then."

"The big issue is: Quit acting as if America is helpless to do anything about gun safety," he added. "America is never helpless. The citizens of Louisville, like all over America right now, are tired of being in fear."

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On Wednesday afternoon, while Trump was still in Louisville, five people were shot in three separate shootings reported in the Park Duvalle and Chickasaw neighborhoods.

"Can we tone the rhetoric down and focus on saving lives?" Fischer asked on MSNBC. "It's not just the mass shootings — that's what gets the headlines all the time — but it's also the daily drumbeat of death that takes place: of suicide by gun, gun deaths in the cities of America."

Trump was asked about the meeting Fischer requested and what he's prepared to support in terms of gun control in an interview on Wednesday with WDRB.

The president didn't directly address Fischer's request and pivoted to talking points on gun control, noting that "we're doing background checks" and that he wants to be sure not to get on a slippery slope where "they end up taking your protection away." 

"Because you know, if you go along a certain path, you won't have any form of protection and you won't have your Second Amendment," Trump said. "And with me, you're always going to have your Second Amendment."

Related:While in Louisville, Trump jokes he wanted to award himself Medal of Honor

In his Monday letter, Fischer urged Trump to work with federal leaders and mayors across America to pass gun safety legislation pending in the Senate and to also consider other measures, including red flag laws and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

He wrote that those items weren't "radical measures." What is radical, he said, is seeing tragedies unfold again and again and doing nothing in response. 

On Wednesday, he added: "The vast majority of Americans, including NRA members, agree on background checks, agree that we should not have assault weapons. These are not radical ideas for reform. What's radical is that nothing's being done about it." 

Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.