Meanwhile, other elected officials seized on the weekend tragedy as justification for improved gun safety laws.
A bipartisan group that included New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) and House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday outlined steps to help “keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill and other dangerous persons.”
“Just as we saw after Virginia Tech, the Arizona tragedy has once again exposed fatal cracks in our background check system,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “The law says that drug abusers can’t buy guns, but even though [shooting suspect] Jared Loughner was rejected by the military for drug use and arrested on drug charges, he was able to pass a background check and buy a gun. It should be clear to everyone that the system is broken and it is time for our leaders in Washington to step up and fix it.”
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