Americans are divided over this.
On Monday (May 16), in the aftermath of the weekend’s mass shooting in a predominantly Black Buffalo neighborhood that killed 10 and injured 3, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) repeated his support for expanding gun legislation to include background checks.
Citing the bipartisan legislation he and Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania first brought up years ago, Manchin noted that despite calls for gun reform, lawmakers couldn’t even get this “agreed upon” legislation passed.
“We can’t even get Manchin-Toomey, which didn’t violate anyone’s rights. It just said there should not be a commercial transaction unless there’s a background check,” Manchin stated when pressed by a reporter from The Hill about recent calls from lawmakers for gun reform.
Manchin continued, stating the legislation is “the most agreed upon, it’s the most accepted in the country, and we can’t even get that done.”
The West Virginia Democrat also brought up “mental illness reform,” adding that he didn’t know what to expect, “Are we going to another vote for the sake of taking a vote? Let’s do some mental illness reform. My goodness,” he said, before stressing his support for “Manchin-Toomey.”
Manchin-Toomey was first introduced by the two Senators following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The legislation would mandate background checks for commercial gun sales.
