During the February 25 airing of Meet the Press, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) pushed background checks for gun shows as part of the response to the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The Stoneman Douglas attacker, Nikolas Cruz, used a rifle that he bought via a background check from a gun store, not a gun show.
Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) began pushing gun control together in 2013, and Toomey made clear he and Manchin are pushing it together now, “One of the things that Sen. Manchin and I are trying to address, let’s at least require a background check for all commercial sales. That’s what our legislation attempts to do by requiring backgrounds on sales at gun shows or over the internet.”
It should be noted that background checks are already required for internet sales. Moreover, as stated earlier, it must be remembered that Cruz acquired his rifle at a gun store via background check. So even if the Manchin/Toomey gun control bill had been in effect it would not have prevented the Florida school shooting.
Ironically, Manchin admitted his gun control would not have prevented the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack, even as the and Toomey pushed it as a response to the Sandy Hook attack. During the April 14, 2013, airing of Face the Nation, Manchin said, “I acknowledge, there’s no single bill that is a panacea for [gun crime], nothing guarantees that a committed criminal isn’t going to find a way to get a gun.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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