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"This Week" host Jon Karl challenges Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), saying that none of the gun control measures he propsoed in his filibuster last week would have done anything to prevent the Orlando shooter from buying a gun. Transcript, via ABC News:
JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS: But you specifically are pushing a bill and have been pushing a bill and it will be voted on on Monday to close the so-called gun show loophole.
Would that have done anything to stop the massacre in Orlando?
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): So it may -- yes, it may have in the sense that if you partner it together with a bill that stops terrorists from --
(CROSSTALK)
KARL: But wait a minute, he didn't buy those guns at a -- at a gun show. And he would've passed a background -- he did pass a background check.
MURPHY: He did pass a background check. But if the Feinstein bill was in effect, the FBI could have put him on the list of those who are prohibited from getting guns.
And what if he went into the gun store and was denied?
Then he could've just gone online or to a gun show and bought another one.
KARL: OK, but what I'm trying to get at is we hear every time there's one of these terrible tragedies --
MURPHY: I understand.
KARL: -- there's these proposals. Your proposal would've done nothing in the case of Orlando. It would've done nothing to stop the killing in San Bernardino and in fact was -- is unrelated to the killing in Newtown.
So why -- I mean, why -- I mean, why are we focusing on things that have nothing to do with the massacres that we are responding to?
MURPHY: Well, so first of all, we can't get into that trap. I disagree. I think if this proposal had been into effect, it may have stopped this shooting.
But we can't get into the trap in which we are forced to defend our proposals simply because it didn't stop the last tragedy. We should be making our gun laws less full of Swiss cheese holes so that future killings don't happen. That trap is an impossible one.
The Sandy Hook families lobby for background checks.
You know why?
Because they're just as concerned with the young men and women who are dying in our cities because of the flow of illegal guns as they are about a ban on assault weapons or high magazine clips that might have prevented the Newtown killing.
So this has to be broader than just responding to the tragedy that happened three days ago.