Toomey: ‘Cautiously’ Optimistic About ‘Common Sense’ Gun Bill that Protects Second Amendment Rights

On Monday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said he was “cautiously” optimistic about getting “common sense” gun legislation passed to prevent future mass shootings.

Toomey acknowledged on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” that there was no way to stop every mass killing, but he said he wanted to “make it more difficult” for the mentally ill and dangerous criminals to obtain a weapon to go forward with a deadly attack.

“This is a big challenge,” Toomey advised. “One thing I want to be clear about, you know, sometimes we lump all of these killings into one category when in fact, they are very, very different in their nature. Some of these are gangs fighting each other over turf in their respective drug businesses. In other cases, of course, it’s these horrific, sensational cases of a deranged young man who goes in and mows down innocent civilians. So, these are very, very different circumstances.”

“What I’m trying to do is see if we can have some common sense measures that make it less likely for dangerous criminals and the dangerously mentally ill to get firearms while protecting the constitutional Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” he continued. “It’s a tough, narrow path.”

Toomey laid out what he deemed the common-sense measures, which included expanding background checks to all commercial sales, making it a federal offense to traffic guns, strengthening school safety, doing more for mental illness and red flag laws.

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