Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted Thursday that the Democratic push for new gun control measures will eventually win out over Republican resistance, especially in the face of new shootings that are changing people’s minds about the issue.
“We will win. America is changing,” Schumer said when asked about the current hurdles Democrats face in trying to pass new gun measures. Schumer is the Democratic whip, but is set to take over for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid once Reid retires at the end of the current Congress.
Reid and Schumer were joined by other Democrats who renewed their call for tougher federal laws on guns, less than a day after 14 were killed in a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the gun control debate “is driven by gun manufacturers,” and “a society that has kind of bought into Kool-aid that the more guns there are, the better protected you are.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said “prayer and platitudes are not enough” and argued that “Congress is complicit in these murders” by failing to pass new gun measures.
“Inaction makes Congress complicit,” Blumenthal repeated, who then stressed the need for national gun legislation, not just state or local action.
“For anybody who says Connecticut has a strong measure on gun violence, and so does California … the simple, stark fact is: the strongest state laws are at the mercy of the weakest, because our borders are porous. Guns flow across state lines, and they victimize innocent people as a result,” Blumenthal said.
“Gun violence has reached epidemic levels in the United States,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Sanders is a Democratic candidate for president who has been criticized by some of his opponents for not being forceful enough in supporting gun control in the past.
