Democrats in the U-S Senate introduced new gun control plans yesterday following the shooting at an Oregon Community College last week. ideastream's Annie Wu reports, Ohio's Senators are both talking about their positions on gun violence at separate events this week.
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Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown doesn’t dispute the second amendment, and he doesn’t think repealing it is the answer.
I just think the 2nd amend allows us to do a lot of things for gun safety.
At the City Club of Cleveland today, Brown said background checks are part of the answer.
We have the consumer products safety commission involved in all kinds of different regulations on safety issues. We don’t do it with the gun manufacturers. Gun manufacturers fund so much of what the NRA does. I think that’s something that we absolutely should consider too.
Two years ago, Brown voted for the Manchin-Toomey background check bill, proposed after a gunman killed 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. Ohio’s Republican Senator Rob Portman opposed the measure. The bill failed by 6 votes.
I don’t think anybody is arguing if that legislation had passed it would have made a difference in this latest tragedy. But I do think that everyone agrees there is a better way to deal w/mental health records.
In a conference call with reporters, Portman said he’s concerned about identifying and caring for people with mental health issues.
What I have proposed is adding far better mental health records into background checks. But there is a gap in getting that info into the records and that’s been one of the problems w/the background checks.
Portman added that urban gun violence caused by gangs and drugs also needs to be addressed.
