Democrat Senator Struggles to Explain How More Gun Laws Can Stop Terrorists

During a June 13 interview on CNN, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) struggled to explain how more gun laws can stop terrorists.

Murphy attempted to justify more gun control a day after Omar Mateen allegedly shot and killed 50 and wounded 53 others at the Pulse Orlando nightclub.

During the interview, Chris Cuomo referenced Murphy’s strong anti-gun stance and asked, “What law would have made this different? What could have stopped this man from getting the weapon that he used to murder all these people?”

Murphy responded:

First of all, I think there’s always a trap in which people want one law to have stopped the most recent episode, the most recent mass shooting. The fact is that there are different laws–had they been in place–that would have addressed many of these incidents.

Murphy went on to say we still do not know all the facts about the attacker, but “what we do know is that he used a very powerful assault weapon that, prior to the expiration of the assault weapons ban, had been illegal in this country.”

In reality, AR-15s were available under the “assault weapons” ban–legally available. The only thing the ban changed was the cosmetics of the guns: no flash hiders, no thumb-hole stocks, no vertical fore grips, etc. So Murphy is wrong. Yet he continued by saying the AR-15 resulted “in 20 little kids being shot and 20 little kids being killed” at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Cuomo sensed the flailing and interrupted, saying, “I get the emotional response … but whether it’s an AR-15 or an M4 or a long gun or a short gun, there are so many different semiautomatic weapons that allow the same yield for any murderer that the idea that there’s a legal change we can make [just doesn’t work].”

Cuomo then refocused and said, “What could you do legally that would have made a difference here versus taking the steps that you can to address these lone wolf threats, to address the terror and deal with that side of it–including mental health, maybe, when it’s relevant?”

Murphy responded by saying:

You are right. It would be a mistake for any of us to try to suggest that this incident and what we know so far is just an issue about guns, or just an issue about terror, or just an issue about mental illness. It appears from what we know that this was an absolutely terrible concoction of all three.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.