Dem Senate candidate: Toomey ‘playing politics’ with guns

Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGinty slammed Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Wednesday, saying he is “playing politics” with gun control. 

“Voters want people who are asking for their votes to level with them,” she told reporters during a conference call. “[In Toomey] we have a person who is seeing this issue very differently, and I think very much as a political calculation as compared to a matter of principle.”

{mosads}McGinty accused Toomey of showing “no leadership” on building bipartisan support for gun control legislation. 

“We have in Sen. Toomey a person who on this issue talks about the Manchin bill in Philadelphia, but as we have seen in video speaks about his perfect record with the NRA in other parts of the state,” she added. 

McGinty’s comments follow a string of high-profile endorsements for Toomey from gun control groups, including Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, started by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.). 

She added that while she would let the organizations make their own cases, “I believe that Sen. Toomey’s record speaks for itself. And it’s a record of playing politics on this issue.” 

CeaseFire Pennsylvania endorsed McGinty Wednesday, arguing she would be a stronger leader on gun control legislation in Congress. 

Shira Goodman, the executive director of the statewide anti-gun-violence group, said while members appreciated Toomey’s work in 2013 on the bill with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand background checks on gun purchases, the senator has stepped away from the issue recently. 

“Sen. Toomey has let others take the mantle of leadership on this issue and that includes not continuing to bring this up, not continuing to vote in a way that we believe swayed leadership,” she told reporters. 

The Manchin-Toomey proposal, offered after a Connecticut elementary school shooting that killed 26 people, failed to overcome a procedural hurdle in the Senate. 

Toomey — who has touted himself as a leader on gun control as part of his reelection bid — said earlier this week he’ll introduce legislation next year aimed at ending illegal gun trafficking, keeping suspected terrorists from buying weapons, requiring more background checks, and providing funding for gun violence research.

Ted Kwong, a spokesman for Toomey’s campaign, touted the senator’s endorsements from groups like Giffords’s, “that are serious about achieving bipartisan results.”

“It’s a shame that this group has become so hyper-partisan that it undermines the very goals it claims to believe in, because nothing will happen in Congress on this important issue without bipartisan support,” he said. 

This story was updated at 1:41 p.m.