Durbin: ‘I Sense a Different Feeling’ in Senate on Gun-Control Proposals

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said Sunday that he “can’t say for certain” if lawmakers would take action on gun-control measures, though he can “sense a different feeling among my colleagues after Uvalde.”

Durbin told CNN’s State of the Union that photos and stories of the victims from the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and two teachers dead have been “compelling” for lawmakers.

In the wake of the recent shootings, a bipartisan group of ten senators plans to negotiate in an attempt to pass legislation aimed at curbing gun violence in the U.S.

Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) is leading the talks, which have focused on several proposals including expanded background checks, enhanced school security, and red-flag laws that allow the confiscation of firearms from those deemed dangerous, the Associated Press reported.

The group plans to work on the legislation through the Senate’s recess and introduce it for a vote in early June.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Thursday that he encouraged Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas to participate in the talks.

“I’ve encouraged him to talk to Senator Sinema, Senator Murphy and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that’s directly related to the problem,” he said. “And so I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that’s directly related to the facts of this awful massacre.”

Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Sunday that he supports the talks and has been in touch with Murphy and Cornyn.

“I offered to Senator Cornyn, if you can make progress between you, if you can move us forward, don’t worry about the committee jurisdiction,” Durbin said.

“Do the right thing and do as much as you can do. And let’s join together, if we can, on a bipartisan basis and show the American people that what happened in Uvalde was not in vain,” he added.

Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire in a fourth-grade classroom on Tuesday with a legally purchased AR-15. Federal Border Patrol agents killed the shooter after entering the school on their own, defying local law enforcement that had asked them to hold back, two senior federal law enforcement sources told NBC News on Friday.

Before Ramos turned 18, he tried to have his sister purchase a gun for him in September 2021, though she “flatly refused,” according to Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw.

He legally purchased two rifles in the days following his 18th birthday, the Houston Chronicle reported. One day after his 18th birthday, he purchased one of the rifles from a federally licensed gun store, which would have required a background check, according to the report. He purchased 375 rounds of ammunition one day later and a second rifle on May 20.

The suspect in another recent massacre at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., that left 13 people dead had passed a background check before legally buying a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic rifle from a gun store in Endicott, N.Y., which he then illegally modified to hold a larger magazine, according to the New York Times.

“He didn’t stand out — because if he did, I would’ve never sold him the gun,” the gun-store owner told the paper of Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gendron.

More from National Review