New York City Mayor Eric Adams pressed the Senate and federal courts to think differently about gun laws in the wake of the Texas school shooting that killed at least 19 children and two adults.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat, said “all we need is 10 senators” to get in a room and hammer out a deal to “turn this madness around,” referring to the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the debate on bills in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.
The mayor urged the Supreme Court to “re-deliberate, think differently” as the conservative majority appears poised to strike down a state law requiring people seeking a permit for concealed carry to demonstrate a special need for self-protection.
Mr. Adams weighed in one day after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and less than two weeks after a shooter targeted Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people.
“There’s just so much more that needs to be done ,and the irony is that it actually could be done,” he said. “This is not beyond our reach. We live in a country where there are more guns than people.”
Mr. Adams weighed in on the national debate as he touted efforts to eliminate guns from schools.
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He said 20 guns have been recovered from schools this academic year, including two firearms that were recently taken from the backpack of a 13-year-old in Brooklyn and displayed in a news conference Wednesday.
“We pour so much into our children, our children mean everything to us. You have to ask yourself what we’ve become as a country as we’re watching over and over again, children killing children. Our children must be asking, ‘Mom, dad — what are you doing?’” he said. “Children are put in harm’s way because of the actions of adults, and we’re betraying them.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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