Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) says more gun control would not have prevented the heinous December 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary.
He specifically points to the kinds of gun controls pushed by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), controls that would have expanded background checks to every gun sale–retail and private. Tester said, “The gun restrictions that were talked about putting on would not have kept the guns out of that clown’s hands that was in Sandy Hook.”
According to the New York Daily News, Tester said it is clear more gun control would have failed in that instance and “there are no if, ands, or buts about it.”
Tester’s position is easy to understand if you keep in mind the fact that the Sandy Hook gunman–Adam Lanza–stole his guns. Moreover, background checks were already required for retail sales, but Lanza avoided them by acquiring his guns illegally.
Ironically, Senator Manchin made the same admission three days before expanded background checks were defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate in 2013. On April 14, 2013, Manchin observed that his gun controls would not have prevented Sandy Hook, but he was pushing them anyway because the families of Sandy Hook victims wanted action.
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.