West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin vowed to do “anything” to tackle gun violence before adding that he would not eliminate the filibuster to advance gun legislation, The Hill reports.
Manchin addressed reporters shortly after an 18-year-old gunman identified by police as Salvador Ramos killed at least 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“It’s just absolutely horrific,” Manchin said. “You all know where I stand; I’ll do anything I can.”
But Manchin pushed back when asked if he would consider scrapping the filibuster to advance legislation.
“The filibuster is the only thing that prevents us from total insanity. Total insanity,” he said.
“You guys ought to be pushing the people that just won’t even budge on anything. I don’t know what it takes to move,” he added. “It makes no sense at all why we can’t do commonsense — commonsense — things and try to prevent some of this from happening. … [It’s] unbelievable how we’ve gotten to a society where someone could be this deranged and this sick.”
Biden calls for gun legislation:
President Joe Biden in a speech after the attack called for lawmakers to stand up to the gun lobby.
“When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God's name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?” he said.
Biden recalled the Sandy Hook massacre a decade earlier.
“Since then, there have been over 900 incidents of gunfire reported on school grounds,” he said. “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don't tell me we can't have an impact on this carnage.”
Murphy begs for compromise:
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy literally begged Republicans to compromise on gun legislation on the Senate floor.
“What are we doing here?” Murphy asked. “This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else. It is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue.”
Speaking to reporters afterward, Murphy rejected Republicans who point to “mental health.”
“Spare me the bullshit about mental illness,” Murphy said. “We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world. You cannot explain this through a prism of mental illness because we’re not an outlier on mental illness … We’re an outlier when it comes to access to firearms and the ability of criminals and very sick people to get their arms on firearms. That’s what makes America different.”
