Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke on Thursday laid into Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, saying Mr. Schumer’s efforts on the gun issue haven’t yielded results.
“Ask Chuck Schumer what he’s been able to get done,” Mr. O’Rourke told reporters in Colorado, according to Politico. “We still don’t have background checks. Didn’t have them when he was in the majority, either. So the game that he’s played, the politics that he’s pursued have given us absolutely nothing and have produced a situation where we lose nearly 40,000 of our fellow Americans every year.”
Mr. O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, was responding to comments Mr. Schumer made about his call for a mandatory gun buyback program for semiautomatic firearms like the AR-15.
“I don’t know of any other Democrat who agrees with Beto O’Rourke, but it’s no excuse not to go forward,” Mr. Schumer had told New York reporters on a conference call.
Mr. O’Rourke was holding an event near the movie theater where a gunman killed 12 people in 2012 and said he was open to expanding his proposal.
“If there’s a way to improve what we have proposed, I want to make sure that we’re reflecting that,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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