Hillary Clinton said Monday that the U.S. needs to reinstate the expired assault weapons ban in the wake of the Orlando shooting that left 50 people dead and dozens more injured.
On NBC Monday morning, she also blamed Republicans for blocking legislation that would have prevented suspected terrorists from buying guns.
“We cannot fall into the trap set by the gun lobby that says if you can’t stop every shooting and every incident, you should not try to stop any. That is not how laws work,” Clinton said.
She said “weapons of war” must be removed from America’s streets, and that means reinstating an assault weapons ban.
“We had an assault weapons ban, it expired. And we need to reinstate it,” Clinton said, noting past terror attacks that used “military style weapons.”
“Terrorists and dangerous individuals are using guns to kill Americans. We should make it a lot harder for them to do that,” Clinton said. She said she has already and will continue to make gun control laws a foundation of her presidential campaign.
Clinton asked “responsible gun owners” to join “the majority of Americans” to help keep “weapons of war off the streets.” When asked what needs to change to get gun reform, after Sandy Hook in 2012 especially, Clinton blamed the gun lobby.
“It’s not complicated. The gun lobby scared the heck out of elected officials,” Clinton said. “We need to make it a voting issue. It is no longer acceptable that elected officials at every level of government will not hear the cries … of the thousands … of people … and we have got to make it clear that we will stand up to” gun deaths.
The early Sunday morning shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in downtown Orlando, Fla., left 49 dead plus the shooter and more than 50 others injured. Clinton called it the deadliest mass shooting in United States history a “terrorist attack,” and urged the country to “get to work.”
“ISIS at a minimum seemed to inspire it,” the presumed Democratic nominee said. “I have a plan to defend our country from the so-called ‘lone wolves.’ I think we have to admit it’s a complex challenge.”
Clinton also rejected Donald Trump’s criticism that she is trying to avoid implicating radical Islamic for the attack, and said Trump is “obsessed with name calling.”
“And from my perspective … it mattered that we got [Osama] bin Laden, not what name we called him,” Clinton responded. She said she has repeatedly called for the defeat of radical jihadist terrorism, but said it would be a mistake to “demonize and demagogue and declare war on an entire religion,” Clinton explained.
