EXCERPT:
ROSEN: Arsons, guns to the head, this is pretty strong medicine in terms of the rhetoric in — you know, I remember after Gabby Giffords was shot, we all wanted to tamp down the rhetoric and the use of these kinds of imagery and metaphor.
But let’s move to, in fact, the atrocity out in Las Vegas where authorities are still investigating and trying to find a motive, for this deadliest mass shooting in American history. We’re just two weeks away from that sickening event. Do you sense that the momentum on Capitol Hill to enact legislation to restrict gun ownership rights in some form or fashion, perhaps the bump stocks, has already subsided?
MURPHY: I think there is willingness to take on this very narrow issue, bump stocks, which allow you to take a semiautomatic weapon and turn it into an automatic weapon. But I do think that you’re seeing the same pattern play out here — thoughts and prayers from Congress, a little nibble of interest at legislative action and then we go back to the status quo.
I just think that we can’t — we can’t continue to pretend that are loose and lax gun laws don’t contribute to the rate of gun crime in this country. Nobody should have that kind of powerful weapon to be able to kill 50 people in a period of 10 to 15 minutes. Nobody should be able to turn that kind of weapon into an automatic weapon. The vast of gun owners in my state support commonsense gun restrictions because they don’t need those kind of weapons to hunt and they don’t think that criminals should be able to buy weapons.