Sen. Pat Toomey details efforts on bipartisan gun control
Discussions are underway between the Senate and President Trump on expanding background checks on gun purchases.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Tuesday that after speaking with President Trump multiple times, he is confident an agreement can be reached on gun reform legislation that does not infringe "on the rights of law-abiding citizens.”
“For me, this is all about trying to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have guns in the first place, that is to say violent criminals and people who are dangerously mentally ill,” Toomey told, “Fox News at Night.”
The bill from Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would expand background checks on gun purchases, an idea that has garnered broad support among gun owners and is expected to gain support from the White House.
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Manchin said earlier Tuesday that non-commercial transfers of firearms between family members are "protected" in the bill, and the Second Amendment would not be infringed upon by the proposed legislation.
"I'd like to see us apply background checks on all commercial sales so that we can identify people who are in one of those two categories that shouldn't have guns," said Toomey.
He said they're trying to find a proposable that Trump is "comfortable" with and that can win a majority of votes in the Senate.
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Toomey argued there are a "long list of attacks" that may have been prevented if stricter background checks were performed, but cautioned that "no one piece of legislation" will stop mass shootings.
“There is no one thing we can do, but if we can make it harder for dangerous people to get firearms in the first place, maybe we'll save some lives,” he said.
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Calling the moment “critical,” Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California sent the president a letter Sunday urging him to expand background checks and use his influence to sway Republicans in the Senate who blocked the bill passed by the House earlier this year.
Pelosi and Schumer pointed to the mass shootings in August that claimed 51 lives and told the president that he is “uniquely positioned” to answer the call of Americans for more gun restrictions.
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