Washington should focus on keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill rather than disarming law-abiding American citizens, and Republicans have legislation to do just that, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry tells
Newsmax TV.
Fellow Keystone State Rep. Tim Murphy's bill addresses the issue of people who shouldn't have guns, Perry said Wednesday on "The Hard Line."
"We need to get to that without infringing upon law-abiding citizens' rights, but let's the start the conversation there," Perry told host Ed Berliner. He suggested mandatory sentences for repeat violent offenders who use a gun as one option.
President Barack Obama, who announced more
executive actions Tuesday that critics say are aimed at restricting gun rights. Perry said the president is playing to his own base, which wants fewer guns in the hands of Americans.
"They hate guns, and they hate the Second Amendment," he said. "They hate the Constitution as it stands. They see it as outdated and this is their way to go around that and go around Congress. It's just another vehicle to do what they've always wanted to do, which is disarm America."
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Obama says he is taking executive action because Congress has failed to pass the gun control initiatives he has put forth. But Perry says that's no reason to bypass the constitutional separation of powers.
"What he means by that is we haven't gotten the job done as he sees it, as he wants it, as he deems it so we have to do what he wants," Perry said. "Well you know what? I would like for America and my children to not see $20 trillion in debt. Since he won't do anything about that, should Congress just unilaterally start cutting all the programs that are important to the president?"
Leaving Congress out of the process ends up causing unintended consequences, Perry added. "We don't want some widow who lost her husband to have to be now listed as a gun dealer to sell off her husband's four old hunting rifles."
As for people who argue that a test should be taken before buying a gun, just as tests are required to drive a car, they are forgetting one thing, Perry said: Driving a car isn't a constitutional right.
"I don't have to take a test to talk to you," he said, because freedom of speech is a First Amendment right. And he doesn't need to take a test to practice his religion.
"I don't understand why I must take a test to avail myself to my God-given rights," he said.
Perry said he has introduced a bill to stop Obama's executive actions.
"Now, if Democrats and the president want to vote against the American people, I suppose they can," he said.