Schumer Promises New Push For Gun Control

New York U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has joined the chorus started by Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey pushing to revive the 2013 efforts on gun control.  The New York Daily News and AM New York reported over the weekend that Schumer wants to try and "strengthen" background checks to keep those with mental illness from getting firearms and requiring background checks at gun shows.

Schumer, author of the Brady Law requiring background checks for gun buyers, said he wants to expand the "weak" laws on federal background checks, saying they let people who shouldn't have a gun get them anyway.

Though he acknowledged it was unclear if stricter laws would have prevented 21-year-old Dylann Roof from allegedly shooting up Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 17, he said, "If we toughened up the law on guns, there would be many fewer of these massacres," also pointing to the recent mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, Newtown, Connecticut, and Virginia Tech.

"I do hope and think that the horror in South Carolina will serve as a wake-up call," Schumer said.

The senator committed to closing a loophole that allows buyers to avoid background checks by purchasing guns online or at gun shows, placing blame on the National Rifle Association for making it harder to track gun sales.

"It's almost impossible to find them because the NRA has put laws on the books that make it hard to trace where guns come from," he said.

Last week this blog shared a report from the Washington Post that Pennyslvania U.S. Senator Pat Toomey said he would like to try and move his proposal that would have criminalized private sales of firearms that died in the Senate in 2013.