WASHINGTON — With a new round of gun deaths in Chicago over the weekend — 13 dead and at least 58 wounded — Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to urge the Senate try again and bring to the floor a background check legislation he co-sponsored for tougher background checks and a crackdown on trafficking and straw purchase of guns.
Despite a string of horrific gun violence incidents over past years — mass shootings in Sandy Hook and individual murders in Chicago and other places — the House and Senate will not pass a variety of measures aimed at curbing gun violence.
“This last weekend in Chicago was memorable, memorable for the wrong reasons,” Durbin said. “In Chicago, gun violence took the lives of fourteen people and wounded 82. I’m honored to represent Illinois and especially honored to represent a great city like Chicago. But, I’m heartbroken to think about what happened this past weekend.”
“We have a moral responsibility in the Senate to keep firearms out of the hands of people who misuse them. We have a legal and moral responsibility to accept this opportunity in the Senate to debate these issues. We can’t run away from them any more than we can run away from the violence in our streets,” Durbin said.
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