Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Monday called for reinstituting a ban on so-called assault weapons in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Orlando.
“We know the gunman used a weapon of war to shoot down at least 50 innocent Americans, and we won’t even be able to get the Congress to prevent terrorists or people on the no-fly list from buying guns,” Mrs. Clinton said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“This is just totally incomprehensible … and I think we’ve got to get back to common-sense gun safety reform, and we can’t fall into the trap that is set up by the gun lobby that says if you can’t stop every shooting and every incident you should not try to stop any,” she said.
“We did have an assault weapons ban for 10 years, and I think it should be reinstated,” she said.
Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday, had twice been investigated by the FBI for potential terrorist ties, and reportedly had a handgun and a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle on him at the time of the Orlando shooting.
Officials said nothing conclusive came from the investigations that would have prevented him from legally purchasing firearms, and ATF officials said he bought a handgun and a long gun in the days before the spree.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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