ABC’s Jonathan Karl hammered Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy over his push for increased gun control in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack by a man who pledged his allegiance to ISIS, saying, “Your proposal would have done nothing.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, Jonathan Karl (Screen Grab: ABC, 6-19-2016)
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Karl said to Murphy, “You’re pushing a bill and have been pushing the bill that will be voted on on Monday to close the so-called ‘gun show loophole.’ Would that have done anything to stop the massacre in Orlando?” (RELATED: Palin: Obama’s A ‘Special Kind Of Stupid’ For Being ‘Anti-Second Amendment’)
“So, it may have in the sense that if you partner it together with a bill that stops terrorists from getting guns,” Murphy began to say before being cut off by ABC’s chief White House correspondent.
“But wait a minute, [the Orlando shooter] didn’t buy those guns at a gun show. And he would have passed the background, he did pass a background check,” Karl said.
“He did pass a background check,” Murphy admitted.
Adding, “if the Feinstein bill was in effect, the FBI could have put him on the list of those prohibited from getting guns. And what if he went into the gun store and was denied, then he could have just gone online or to a gun show and bought another weapon,” Murphy speculated. (RELATED: Lynch Shifts Blame: Gun Shop Owner Didn’t Give Us Enough To ID Orlando Terrorist [VIDEO])
“But what I’m trying to get at, and we hear every time there’s on of these terrible tragedies, there’s these proposals,” Karl said. “Your proposal would have done nothing in the case in Orlando, it would have done nothing in the killing in San Bernardino, and in fact, is unrelated to the killing in Newtown.” (RELATED: Obama Misstates Newtown Shooting Facts To Push For More Gun Control)
“So why, why are we focusing on things that have nothing to do with the massacres we’re that we are responding to,” Karl insisted.
“First of all, we can’t get get many that trap. I disagree. I think if this proposal had been in effect, it may have stopped this shooting. But we can’t get into the trap in which we are forced to defend a proposal simply because it didn’t stop the last tragedy,” Murphy said.
“We should make the gun laws less full of Swiss cheese holes so future killings don’t happen. That trap is an impossible one,” Murphy said.