Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday warned against the Democratic push for new gun control in the wake of a new mass shooting in California.
“There are law-abiding citizens whose rights we don’t want to trample upon,” Ryan said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
{mosads}“I think we can protect our civil liberties while also giving us the tools to prevent these kinds of terrorist attacks from occurring. We are a free society and we don’t want terrorists to make us take away our freedoms from ourselves.”
Multiple shooters opened fire Wednesday at a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 and wounding 17 others.
Two suspects — identified as Syed Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27 — were later killed during a shootout with police in nearby Redlands, Calif.
Farook reportedly worked as a county public health inspector at the targeted facility and attacked it after a professional dispute there. Authorities said the attackers were armed with assault rifles, handguns and explosive devices.
During a separate interview on CBS’s “This Morning,” Ryan said the prevalence of mass shootings in the U.S. shows the need to reform the nation’s mental health system.
“What we have seen is a theme of mental illness,” Ryan said.
“We need to fix our mental illness laws and policies. They’re outdated. That’s something we’re working on right now.”
Ryan also pushed for legislation addressing mental healthcare after a shooting last week at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He has called for appointing a new assistant secretary for mental health and says Congress should remove restrictions on Medicaid payments for certain mental healthcare.
“What happened is appalling, and justice should be swift,” Ryan said of the Nov. 27 attack in Colorado that killed three people. “Clearly we can do more, and one common denominator in these tragedies is mental illness.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have suggested blocking those on the government’s terrorist watch list from buying firearms, given no such rule is currently in place.