Lindsey Graham: Senate Gun Control Bill 'Going Nowhere'

Appearing on CNN on March 31, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the Senate gun control bill is “going nowhere.”

After suggesting the current background check system is broken, Graham asked why expanding a broken system would be considered the way to go. “I think [the gun control] legislation is going nowhere, but I’d like to have a robust debate about improving the system,” Graham explained. 

He said the attempt to pass new laws without first focusing on enforcing laws already on the books is misguided to begin with: 

The idea of private individuals transferring their weapons and having to go through a background check makes no sense. Before you’d expand the background check there were 76,000 people last year that failed a background check and less than one percent got prosecuted. There were 9,000 people in 2010 who failed a background check who were felons on the run, so before you expand checks to include private individuals let’s put resources into the current system we have.

Although he said he will not be part of any possible GOP filibuster of the bill, Graham did say he will vote against universal background checks.