Vice President Biden and Mayor Bloomberg Want Congress to ‘Think About Newtown’
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STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Vice President Biden Thursday urged members of Congress to “Think about Newtown” as he stood with families of Newtown shooting victims days after the Senate dropped an assault weapons ban and a magazine capacity limit from federal gun legislation.
At New York’s City Hall, Biden and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said what gun control advocates have been pushing amounts to “common sense,” noting the irony that many Americans think these measures for gun control are already in place.
“The American people, a significant number, already think there are universal background checks; they already think that anyone who buys multiple guns has to be reported,” Biden said Thursday.
The vice president also pointed out that, despite the belief by many opposed to stricter gun laws, the latest proposals for gun control would not violate Second Amendment rights.
“Tell me how it violates anyone’s constitutional right to be limited to a clip that holds 10 rounds — instead of 30…Or in Aurora, a hundred!” he said.
Bloomberg noted that in the 97 days since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 school children and six adults were killed, an estimated 3000 people have been killed across the country by a gun.
“We have to pull together to stop this carnage,” Bloomberg said.
The two men are among the most prominent gun control advocates. They met Thursday with relatives of two children and a teacher killed in Newtown.
“This is not about eliminating the possibility of another Newtown,” said Lynn McDonnell, whose daughter Grace was killed in her first grade classroom. “Shouldn’t we be doing everything we can?”
Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse was killed by one of Adam Lanza’s bullets, said he was “ashamed congress doesn’t have the courage to stand up and make a change and put a ban on [assault weapons].”
“Those weapons have no purpose or no use on the streets or in our schools,” he said.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio