It’s up to America’s leaders to “see clarity through the emotional chaos” in the wake of the nation’s worse mass shooting, GOP Rep. Scott Taylor says, refuting the call from Rep. Seth Moulton and other Democrats for Congress to “step in.”
In a debate between the military veterans aired Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Moulton, of Massachusetts, called the Las Vegas shootings by gunman Stephen Paddock reflective of “an American epidemic.”
“I’ve seen the effects of gun violence first-hand in Iraq,” the Marine vet said. “And I know that it has no place at our schools, on our streets, at our concerts. And there are things that we can do to reduce it that are within the Second Amendment.”
“Look, the gun manufacturers were smart,” he added about bump-stock devices like the kind used in the Vegas carnage. “They figured out a way to get around the law. It's the job of Congress to then step in and say that was not our intent, we did not want to provide this loophole in the law, so we should fix it.”
But Virginia’s congressman Taylor, a former Navy SEAL, said the violence isn’t unique to America.
“Yes, there are more [mass shootings], there is no question about that,” he said. “I understand that. But the reality is… I'm not willing to impede on someone's rights just because emotional rhetoric. And the other thing is when you look at evidence-based studies... The things that are proposed, like background checks, like the assault ban, I know you were supporting that. They don't necessarily help reduce gun violence.”
“It’s up to leaders like us to have or to see clarity through the emotional chaos and to understand that it is a high, very high bar to be able to take some folks' rights away to try to enact policies that take their rights away but not really do anything,” he added.
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