JUDY WOODRUFF: As more
becomes known about
the alleged shooter's
troubled past, lawmakers
are looking at ways to address
what some critics call a
broken background check system.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat
from Connecticut, has been one
of the most vocal critics for
reforming gun laws following the
tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in his home state
in 2012.
We spoke a short time ago,
and I started by asking him
what needs to happen now.
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY (D), Connecticut:
Well, it's an open secret
that the existing background
check system is program.
And people are waking up to
the knowledge now that the
Department of Defense has not
been uploading lots and lots of
records of people who shouldn't
be able to get guns into
the system.
But the fact of the matter
is, there are many states that
upload almost no records to the
background check system, leaving
the FBI to go out and try
to get those records through
other means.
That means there are hundreds
of thousands of people who
shouldn't buy weapons who are
either seriously mentally ill
or who have been convicted
of serious crimes who walk
into gun stores and are able
to walk out with weapons,
like the shooter in Texas.
Hopefully, this may be one of
the few areas of common cause.
I talked today with Senator
John Cornyn, one of the biggest
NRA proponents in the Senate,
and we committed to try to
work together on tightening up
the existing background check
system.
This guy should have never
gotten a gun, and, hopefully,
Republicans and Democrats can do
something about that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So,
Senator, you're suggesting
that the loopholes in
the background system
were well known.
If that's the case, why
wasn't it brought to the
public's attention before now?
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: Well,
it has been brought to
the public's attention.
We have had legislation
in Congress for multiple
sessions to improve and
strengthen the background
check system.
The House of Representatives
passed funding a few years
ago to give states more money
to upload records to NICS.
The Republicans in Congress
have never been willing to move
this legislation, have never
been willing to fund states in
order to put records online.
In fact, they have been
moving the opposite direction.
Earlier this year,
Republicans passed
legislation that was signed
by President Trump that took
75,000 people with serious
mental illness off the list
of people who are prohibited
from buying weapons.
It seems that, maybe in light
of this tragedy, there is some
willingness to finally close
these loopholes and make sure
that the background check system
works, but everybody has known
about this and many of us have
been trying to fix it for years.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So do you think
there is a genuine change
of view on the other side?
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: Well, I know that
Senator Cornyn has been the
strongest opponent of many of
the commonsense gun safety
changes, like universal
background checks,
that we have tried the
make.
And, today, he and I talked
seriously about working together
to try the make sure that
states are uploading
this information about
criminals and people with
serious mental illness
into the database.
And that's not sufficient in
order to protect Americans, in
part because that only applies
if you buy your
gun at a gun store.
If you buy it at a gun show
or online, even if you're on
the prohibited list, you will
still walk out with a weapon.
But it's a step in the
right direction, if you
can work together on this.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And you're
prepared to work with Senator
Cornyn and others on this?
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: I think you have
the crawl before you can walk.
And I am willing to do anything
to try to show the American
public that we are not just
going to sit idly by
and allow shooting after
shooting to happen.
I think, if Republicans can
flex that muscle a little bit
and tighten up our gun laws,
maybe show a little bit of
resistance to the gun lobby,
they will find out that it's not
that hard and they actually
get a lot of applause
from a cross-section
of their constituents
back home.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But,
just to clarify, the
Air Force acknowledging
that there was an error,
you're suggesting it's more
than just a single error?
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: It is much
more than a single error.
The data that I have seen
suggests that, while the
military is uploading
information relative
to people who have been given
dishonorable discharges, those
that have been bad conduct
discharges are very often
not put into the system.
It doesn't look to me like
this was an individual
act of oversight.
It looks to me like there's
a much bigger systematic
problem that we need to fix.
JUDY WOODRUFF: President Trump,
for the second day in a row
now, he has commented on the
shooting.
Today, he is arguing again that
it's fortunate that someone
had a gun and was able to use
it on the shooter
outside the church.
He's gone on to say
more gun restrictions
might have prevented
this neighbor from doing
what he did.
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: Yes, I don't
know if anybody has told the
president that 26 people died
inside that church and that he
was only pursued by civilians
once he had murdered 26 people,
including children and seniors.
And despite the fact
that Texas allows you
to carry a concealed
weapon almost anywhere,
explicitly inside churches,
this shooter, by using a
military-style assault weapon,
was able to engage in one
of the worst mass shootings
in American history.
So, clearly, a good guy with
a gun didn't stop a bad guy
with a gun this weekend in
Texas.
It is part of this absurd
mythology that the gun industry
has tried to perpetuate in this
country, which is
never, ever true.
Plenty of places that have lots
of good guys with guns have
mass shootings that are not
stopped in that manner.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I'm sure you
know, Senator, even some
Democrats have this view.
On the "NewsHour" last
night, there was a Democratic
congressman, Henry Cuellar, who
pointed out that people
with guns could help
prevent things like this.
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: It's just
not what the data shows.
And it's not what the
anecdotal evidence shows.
There were plenty of people
in Dallas with weapons when
a sniper started firing from
above the scene.
There's the ability in Nevada to
carry weapons in public spaces.
They didn't stop that sniper.
And, similarly, in Texas,
some of the loosest gun laws
in the world didn't stop him.
If you own a gun, whether you
like it or not, the data tells
you that that gun is much more
likely to be used to kill you
than it is to be used by you
to kill an assailant or an
intruder.
That's not my opinion.
That's the facts.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally,
Senator, the question of bump
stocks, they got a lot of
attention after the
Las Vegas shooting.
Where does that stand right now?
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: Well, Republicans
say that they want to work on
it, but we have not seen any
willingness to put
legislation forward.
The problem is the existing
statute is truly ambiguous.
It is not clear-cut that the
ATF has the ability to ban these
after-market modifications by
themselves.
And they have told us that.
Thus, it's up to Congress
to make clear what we
have always agreed upon,
that people shouldn't
have automatic weapons.
The ATF likely can't
do this by themselves.
Congress has to do it.
But Republicans who say
they're open to it don't seem
willing to actually put forward
the legislation.
We're going to try to
hold them to it in the
coming days and weeks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator
Chris Murphy of Connecticut,
thank you very much.
SEN.
CHRIS MURPHY: Thanks.