On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Senate Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) stated that he doesn’t understand why “individuals have to purchase and own a gun that was made for military purposes and put a clip on this that has multiple pieces of ammunition that can be shot at an individual.”
NBC News Analyst, MSNBC host, and POLITICO White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire asked, “Senator, we heard from the mayor there that this gun appears to have been legally purchased. Can you walk us through how that can happen in the state of Illinois, which has some of the tighter gun regulations across the country, how does one purchase a gun like this, and should there have been some sort of red flag that should have gone off that should have prevented it?”
Durbin responded, “Well, it’s often said, and it’s part of urban legend, that Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the nation. That may have been true at some point in the past. Supreme Court rulings have basically stopped that from occurring. We’re subject to the same regulations and limitations when it comes to gun safety. And in this circumstance, in America, we have this anomaly, you have to be 21 years old by federal law to purchase a handgun. But you can purchase a long gun, which includes these weapons like AR-15, at the age of 18. Now a recent bill said we’re going to have a better background check on younger purchases. I salute that and I support that. But it’s still beyond any understanding that I can offer as to why in the world individuals have to purchase and own a gun that was made for military purposes and put a clip on this that has multiple pieces of ammunition that can be shot at an individual. And you can see the horror that we witnessed yesterday in Highland Park.”
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