Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said presidential candidates and Congress were “complicit” in mass shootings like the one in Oregon yesterday because they are not endorsing and passing gun control laws.
Blumenthal said, “My hope is this latest horrific unspeakable tragedy will galvanize the Congress, but more importantly galvanize the American people to demand from Congress it end its complicity, and it is really complicity, in these massacres and 30,000 deaths that occur every year.”
Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “Senator, what do you say to the candidates who say you can’t do anything about this and it is a mental health problem, not a gun problem?”
Blumenthal replied, “Hold them accountable. By now, the American people overwhelmingly, 90 percent or more support common sense measures like background checks. Members of Congress who are complicit, who fail to support those kinds of measures who actively oppose them, presidential candidates likewise should be held accountable and should be asked in forums around the country, in town halls, whether they will support common sense measures like ban on illegal trafficking, or straw purchases, or background checks, and mental health measures that will provide the resources that are really necessary, not just because of the impacts in terms of gun violence but because we can make our country healthier, safer, and better.”
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