On the Sandy Hook anniversary, Morning Joe highlights Congress’ refusal to pass the gun safety laws Americans support

Special Programs Guns & Public Safety

Written by Cydney Hargis

Published

On the five year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT, MSNBC’s Morning Joe pointed out that despite strong public support for regulating firearms on the federal level, Congress has been slow to move on any type of gun safety legislation since the tragedy.

Co-host Joe Scarborough mentioned the number of Americans killed by gun violence since Sandy Hook and highlighted that Americans on both sides of the political divide overwhelming support gun safety measures, including banning assault weapons, expanding background checks and bump stocks, like those that were used in the October Las Vegas mass shooting. Scarborough noted that despite the support, members of Congress opposing reforms are “playing to a small hard core interest group in Washington D.C., and not even listening to the majority of” Americans. From the December 14 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe: 

JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): It's -- we talked about this. Mika, I don't know that there's been anything as jarring, other than September 11th, certainly in my lifetime of following news and reporting on the news, than what happened in Newtown five years ago today. It just still -- it's something obviously that the families will never get past. It's something that the town will never get past. And so many of these families are still fighting every day to make sense of it, but to also try to turn this tragedy into something good. You look at the numbers, the Daily News, October 3rd, wrote that there have been -- there's been nearly one mass shooting every day for the 1,754 days since the shocking slaughter of those 20 Connecticut angels. And Mike Barnicle, there are times -- the American people, I mean, this shook the American people to the core. Ninety percent of Americans still support enhanced background checks. The number of Americans that support a ban on assault-style weapons continues to go up. Americans support gun safety at higher numbers than ever before and so much of it came out of that, and yet, how does Congress answer this just a week ago?

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SCARBOROUGH: And you look at the number of Americans that have been killed by guns since Sandy Hook. It's unfathomable that Congress still has refused to do anything despite the fact that 90 percent of Americans want them to. They are playing to a small hard core interest group in Washington D.C., and not even listening to the majority of NRA members who want -- I’ll say that again. The majority of NRA members, the majority of Republicans, the majority of conservatives, want expanded background checks, and they want legislation passed, gun safety legislation passed.

SUSAN DEL PERCIO: And they can start even working backwards from some of the most dangerous weapons that are out there. You can start at whether it's the block gizmo on the gun or other types of weapons. I mean, we do have certain standards in our country. You can't have land mines on your yard, for example. Those are deemed too dangerous. We have to start working back and force this country into sensible, responsible gun ownership because you're right, Joe. Most NRA members are for proper background checks. They have no problem with waiting. If I need a gun in 24 hours, there's probably a bad reason that I would want a gun in 24 hours. The government, they need to start moving this, and this is one of those issues that we can start saying, I'm for the Second Amendment, but we need to be responsible. This is something Republicans can be moderate on and still hold onto their base.

SCARBOROUGH: And the bump stock issue, Willie, that after Las Vegas, after that horrific slaughter in Las Vegas, we heard that they might even move on bump stocks. They can't even do that.

Despite Congress’ inaction, Josh Horwitz, the executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, noted in a HuffPost piece that the last five years have been “among the most productive” throughout his 30 years working on the gun violence issue. He highlighted that individuals states have passed “laws creating universal background check systems, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and protecting victims of domestic violence from armed abusers” and that there has been a “marked political shift regarding gun violence prevention” with fewer politicians “ducking the issue.”