A number of prominent Democrats on Thursday pushed for the national adoption of California-style gun-control laws in the immediate aftermath of a horrific shooting at a California high school.
Within hours of the news that two students had been murdered, and another three injured, during an attack at Saugus High School just outside Los Angeles, current and former Democratic lawmakers began advocating for a federal universal background check system and a national ban on “assault weapons.” The calls for these policies came even as California’s own implementation of both laws failed to prevent the shooting.
“We can’t go 24 hours without news of another mass shooting somewhere in America,” Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said on the Senate floor as news of the shooting was still coming in. “My kids and millions of others hide in corners of their classroom or in their bathrooms preparing for a mass shooting at their school, and this body does nothing about it. The good news is we have a piece of legislation that enjoys 95 percent support in the American public and will undoubtedly make an enormous impact on gun violence rates in this country.”
Murphy then called for the Senate to “immediately take up H.R. 8,” a universal background check bill passed by the House of Representatives. – READ MORE