Sen. Dianne Feinstein has taken the recent California shooting by the University of California, Santa Barbara, that left six dead as cause to rally for more gun control, to slam the National Rifle Association’s lobby work and to chastise Americans who aren’t on board with national background checks.
She didn’t say anything negative about knives, however. Police say the attacker, Elliot Rodger, 22, killed six and wounded 13 in Isla Vista in both a shooting and stabbing spree, before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.
“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,” Ms. Feinstein said in a statement reported by The Hill.
She went on: “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 a problem,” she said.
Ms. Feinstein then placed blame on the NRA, calling out the gun rights group on its lobby work.
“Unfortunately, the NRA continues to have a stranglehold on Congress,” she said, The Hill reported, “preventing even commonsense measures like universal background checks that have overwhelming support. Until that happens, we will continue to see these devastating attacks. Shame on us for allowing this to continue.”
Democrats tried the same tactic — using a gun-related incident to advance gun control legislation — after the December 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. The ensuing bill never made it out of the Senate.
Ms. Feinstein isn’t alone in her call for a revival of the legislation.
“I really since hope that this … unimaginable, unspeakable tragedy will provide an impetus to bring back measures that would keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people who are severely troubled or deranged like this young man was,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, about the Isla Vista killings, on CBS “Face the Nation.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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