Senators seek solutions to address gun violence in the country due to Supreme Court decision
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Senate Democrats, like Sen. Dick Durbin, are looking for solutions to the gun violence they say is endangering American lives.
“I don’t know how our Founding Fathers would have felt about a chilling milestone given that we had more than 100 mass shootings just over a week ago,” Durbin said.
Last year’s Supreme Court ruling that people don’t need a reason to apply for a concealed carry permit will make matters worse, Durbin said.
“America’s proliferation of weapons has not brought peace to our streets, quite the opposite,” Durbin said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) worried the ruling could thwart commonsense measures like safe storage laws.
“Eason’s Law only requires safe storage of firearms, not taking away a single firearm,” Blumenthal said.
“Prior to Bruen, secure storage law worked extremely well in court,” said Eric Ruben, assistant professor at SMU’s Dedman School of Law. “This is a great example of the challenges the courts are facing right now.”
But some Republicans believe the right way to curb violence is to keep criminals behind bars.
“What I can’t explain is why our prosecutors and judges hold criminals back,” said Sen. Martha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
Blackburn and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) say more attention should be paid to repeat offenders.
“If we want to reduce homicides, we should arrest, convict and detain those who are violent,” Lee said.
“The failure to incapacitate repeat offenders is at the heart of America’s gun violence problem, and it has been for a long time,” said Rafael Mangual, director of research for the Manhattan Institute’s Policing and Public Safety Initiative.
