UPDATE: Sen. Brown is co-sponsoring Sen. Feinstein's bill; he also voted for a similar ban in 2013, following the Sandy Hook shooting.
Sen. Sherrod Brown is renewing his calls to examine the nation’s gun laws following the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Brown says he’s incredulous that some of his colleagues still do the bidding of the gun lobby in the face of mass shootings.
“No matter what happens – no matter if it’s schoolchildren [or] if it’s dozens killed – or an attack like this where the weapon has been changed, apparently -- has been modified -- that my colleagues keep doing the bidding of the gun lobby.”
The Democrat says he will likely will sign onto an effort introduced this week that would ban bump stocks and similar devices, which can modify rifles to fire repeatedly, mimicking an automatic weapon.
But he says there’s other areas that can be looked at, too.
“It’s clear we can do common sense things to protect the American public better. We see thousands of Americans die by gun violence every year. With some common sense steps – background checks, start with that.”
The bump stock ban was introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Brown says it’s narrower than an assault weapons ban introduced by the California senator in 2013, which failed to pass. Brown says he’s spoken with Feinstein about the bump stock ban, and she indicated it could garner bipartisan support.
