Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called for gun control measures after a gunman killed several people in Isla Vista, Calif., over the weekend.
“When anyone, no matter their mental health or history, can so easily obtain any gun they want and as many as they want — we must recognize there is a problem,” Feinstein said. “Shame on us for allowing this to continue.”
{mosads}Elliot Rodger, 22, stabbed to death his two roommates and a friend, shot two women to death at a University of California, Santa Barbara, sorority house, and shot and killed another man inside a deli over the Memorial Day weekend before killing himself.
Feinstein said that because of the National Rifle Associations’ (NRA) lobbying, the Senate failed to pass gun control reforms last years such as background checks on all gun sales.
“Unfortunately the NRA continues to have a stranglehold on Congress, preventing even commonsense measures like universal background checks that have overwhelming support,” Feinstein said. “Americans need to rise up and say enough is enough. Until that happens, we will continue to see these devastating attacks.”
Rodger had been seeing a therapist and his mother asked the police to check on him after he posted a video on YouTube about why girls hated him. Feinstein said protections should have been in place to prevent him from buying two guns that he then used in his attacks.
“We must ask ourselves if an individual whose family called police with concerns about mental health, who is receiving therapy and who has had several run-ins with police should be allowed to own multiple firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition,” Feinstein said. “The deadly shooting in Isla Vista is heartbreaking. Schools should be places of safety, not where students fear for their lives.”
It is unlikely that the Senate will again try to pass gun control reform during an election year when several vulnerable Democrats are up for reelection in conservative states.