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On Thursday’s CNN This Morning, reacting to a lethal mass taking pictures in Lewiston, Maine, the present offered Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) an unchallenged discussion board to push for extra gun management and lament that such laws would doubtless be opposed by newly elected Home Speaker Mike Johnson. And, though fellow Democrat Senator Jon Tester helps laws to guard the gun rights of veterans, Senator Coons was allowed to mislead viewers on the difficulty.
After enjoying a clip of the mayor of Auburn, Maine, reacting to the homicide spree in neighboring Lewiston that killed 18, CNN co-host Poppy Harlow introduced aboard her visitor as she misleadingly blurred gang-related mass shootings with the much less frequent kind that has a excessive dying toll and is tougher to foretell. Harlow started:
Households in mourning this morning as police seek for this man — Robert Card — recognized as an individual of curiosity. As of yesterday, the U.S. to this point has seen greater than 560 mass shootings this yr alone, and it isn’t even the tip of the yr. That is in response to the Gun Violence Archive. With us this morning, Democratic Senator of Delaware who has labored tirelessly on the difficulty of gun violence, Chris Coons.
Referring to an earlier interview with Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Harlow started by posing: “Let me ask you, Senator, a query that Phil simply requested Consultant Dusty Johnson, and that’s: Is that this simply what People are going to have to simply accept, that this might occur to them any day?”
It did not take lengthy earlier than the Democrat Senator fretted over efforts to guard gun rights for veterans:
Poppy, I actually hope not. President Biden signed into regulation final yr the most important progress we have made ahead on closing loopholes within the gun background verify system, and investing tens of billions of {dollars} extra in group psychological well being, however yesterday we took a vote on the ground of the Senate for stress-free the requirements for entry to weapons for veterans who’ve been adjudicated mentally in poor health. Really, I could also be fallacious. Which may be a vote arising in the present day. We do have a rustic that’s sharply divided by way of our understanding of the boundaries on gun rights.
Co-host Phil Mattingly adopted up by recalling that Republicans who supported the final set of latest gun restrictions acknowledged that they might be unwilling to help any additional rules, and posed: “There is no such thing as a path right here for the rest is there?”
The liberal Senator responded by accusing Speaker Johnson of being too conservative and unlikely to work with Democrats on weapons:
There is not, Phil, and that is maddening to these of us right here who assume there’s extra for us to do. And, frankly, after a number of weeks of chaos, the Home is lastly settled on a brand new Speaker who I look ahead to attending to know, however who by press accounts and what I have been capable of finding on-line about his document is much extra conservative than any current Speaker. That makes me much more involved that we’ll genuinely wrestle to make progress on enhancing gun security for our nations — for our households — for our kids.
After Harlow adopted up by asking if Congress may cross extra spending for psychological well being if it weren’t tied to new gun legal guidelines, the Delaware Democrat repeated his deceptive claims that Republicans are attempting to assist veterans with psychological sickness get their gun rights again.
It was not talked about that it isn’t simply Republicans who help the measure relating to veterans. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) additionally helps the identical measure which might shield veterans who’ve needed to get assist in coping with their funds due to psychological sickness, opposite to how Senator Coons made it sound.
This episode of CNN This Morning was sponsored partially by Liberty Mutual. Their contact info is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN This Morning
October 26, 2023
8:51 a.m. Japanese
POPPY HARLOW: That was Mayor Jason Levesque of Auburn, Maine, describing how everybody in his tight-knit group is aware of victims of the 2 lethal mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, in a single day. Households in mourning this morning as police seek for this man — Robert Card — recognized as an individual of curiosity. As of yesterday, the U.S. to this point has seen greater than 560 mass shootings this yr alone, and it isn’t even the tip of the yr. That is in response to the Gun Violence Archive. With us this morning, Democratic Senator of Delaware who has labored tirelessly on the difficulty of gun violence, Chris Coons. Let me ask you, Senator, a query that Phil simply requested Consultant Dusty Johnson, and that’s: Is that this simply what People are going to have to simply accept, that this might occur to them any day?
SENATOR CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Poppy, I actually hope not. President Biden signed into regulation final yr the most important progress we have made ahead on closing loopholes within the gun background verify system, and investing tens of billions of {dollars} extra in group psychological well being, however yesterday we took a vote on the ground of the Senate for stress-free the requirements for entry to weapons for veterans who’ve been adjudicated mentally in poor health. Really, I could also be fallacious. Which may be a vote arising in the present day. We do have a rustic that’s sharply divided by way of our understanding of the boundaries on gun rights.
It was considered one of President Biden’s large accomplishments together with a bipartisan group right here within the Senate final yr that we transfer ahead on closing the background verify loopholes and enhancing gun security. However there’s a lot extra to do. No different superior industrialized nation has this problem the place day after day after day there are mass shootings throughout our nation. All of us ought to replicate on our willingness to commit ourselves to the security of our kids — our colleges — our communities. If you cannot go to a bowling alley or a movie show — a synagogue or a church with out having to fret about an armed assault, then frankly we’re not defending our personal folks within the ways in which we must always.
PHIL MATTINGLY: Senator, simply to sort of put a finer level on this, to Poppy’s query, within the wake of the bipartisan gun regulation which is, as you be aware, probably the most vital in many years, each Republican who co-sponsored that invoice with you nearly to a co-sponsor — not all of them — mentioned there is no such thing as a urge for food for the rest, interval, finish of story — guys you’re employed with, of us that you simply assume extremely of. There is no such thing as a path right here for the rest is there?
SENATOR COONS: There is not, Phil, and that is maddening to these of us right here who assume there’s extra for us to do. And, frankly, after a number of weeks of chaos, the Home is lastly settled on a brand new Speaker who I look ahead to attending to know, however who by press accounts and what I have been capable of finding on-line about his document is much extra conservative than any current Speaker. That makes me much more involved that we’ll genuinely wrestle to make progress on enhancing gun security for our nations — for our households — for our kids.
HARLOW: You say “no urge for food” for any extra gun violence prevention regulation particularly. And also you’re proper — Speaker Johnson did vote in opposition to that bipartisan invoice final yr that you simply talked about. However what about simply psychological well being? As a result of this man spent two weeks this summer time in a psychological well being facility. Do you assume there’s any urge for food writ massive for extra psychological well being assist in the event you do not join it to weapons?
SENATOR COONS: Effectively, it is essential, Poppy, for us to differentiate between these two fields as a result of there are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of People with psychological well being wants which can be underfunded the place they’ve problem accessing companies that haven’t any connection in anyway to gun violence. However on this explicit occasion, that clearly — it appears to from press accounts — have been the causal issue. That is why I spotlight the modification by Senator Kennedy that is a part of the combo of amendments that we’re going to must vote on earlier than we transfer ahead on our appropriations invoice. It explicitly reduces the restrictions on veterans who’ve been adjudicated mentally in poor health from having the ability to entry weapons. For many years, that is been in place.
If a court docket guidelines that you’re an excessive amount of of a hazard to your self and others to have entry to weapons, that strikes me as a reasonably good predictor that you simply shouldn’t be concerned in gun possession or gun purchases, but there’s a vital group of Republicans right here within the Senate making an attempt to roll that again. That may be the most important discount in gun security — the most important discount from of us who’re on the background verify record in many years. So it is alarming that we’ve got such a deep division between our events within the intersection of gun security and psychological well being. And I believe it’s a unhealthy predictor of our political course quickly. Among the hardest conferences I’ve ever been in at house in Delaware was with the dad and mom of younger youngsters who, of their first yr of college, needed to do energetic shooter drills — one thing we didn’t develop up with — one thing that now’s a day by day reminder to high school youngsters that their communities, their dad and mom, their nationwide management isn’t doing sufficient to maintain them secure.
MATTINGLY: Senator Chris Coons, we respect your time as at all times, sir. Thanks.
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