Second Amendment advocate Mark Hughes, the African-American man who was mistakenly identified as the Dallas shooter for carrying a rifle around his chest, wanted to talk sensible gun control with House Speaker Paul Ryan Tuesday night.
Hughes has remained out of the public eye since July 7, when he gained instant fame as a prime suspect in attacks that killed five police and seven other officers.
But the Texas man turned up in New York City Tuesday for a CNN town hall event. Hughes, a Democrat who has a permit to legally conceal and carry, asked Ryan about steps Congress can take to ensure guns are not sold to people with mental disorders, including veterans like the Dallas sniper.
“There are two things I would say. We have got to get early intervention into people with mental illnesses so that we can see these problems before they materialize and have the ability to do something about it. That’s point one,” Ryan said.
“But with respect to vets, we have got to clean up the VA I spent a half hour with the veterans secretary yesterday talking about how are we going to clean up the VA. So that the VA can specialize on its unique problems, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, prosthetics,” Ryan said. “It’s not lack of money. We always give the VA more money than they ask for for veterans’ healthcare. It’s bureaucracy. It is mismanagement.”
But CNN moderator Jake Tapper pushed Ryan for additional information on gun control regulations.
“With respect to terrorists, what I think a lot of the solutions that the Democrats have been putting forward, they would not have stopped these shootings — would not have prevented these things,” Ryan said.
The House speaker talked around specific changes House Republicans would be willing to make to current laws, explaining that there are constitutional concerns if lawmakers want to impede citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
