Chuck Schumer: Mitch McConnell Twiddling Thumbs as Guns Kill People

During a gun control event outside the U.S. Capitol Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is twiddling his thumbs while guns kill people.

Schumer ascended the podium and asked, “Why are we here?” He then answered his own question, saying, “Because too many American lives have been lost to gun violence and the United States Senate could do something about it today, and the United States Senate and Mitch McConnell are just twiddling their thumbs as more and more people die from gun violence.”

He said, “Leader McConnell has created a do-nothing Senate, refusing to consider even the most popular House-passed bills.”

Schumer pushed universal background checks, saying, “Over 90 percent of Americans support closing…background check loopholes.” He referenced House Democrats’ universal background checks bill, H.R. 8. That bill, passed February 27, criminalizes private gun sales unless an individual gets government approval before selling a handgun to his lifelong neighbor or a shotgun to a coworker he has known for decades. However, H.R. 8 would do nothing to hinder attacks like the one witnessed in Virginia Beach on May 31, and that is because the Virginia Beach gunman passed background checks to acquire his guns.

Moreover, universal background checks would not have stopped a single mass shooting in the last 12 years because nearly every attacker during that time-frame acquired his guns via a background check. The exceptions are those who stole their guns.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.