Congress could save lives with an hour of hard work that would limit access to deadly weapons while remaining consistent with Second Amendment rights while representing the will of most Americans, Rep. Jim Himes insisted Tuesday morning, while responding to Sunday's shooting in Las Vegas.
"We could pass those bills today, and we would reduce the carnage," the Connecticut Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "Waiting is one of the many tools that the folks who would have us do absolutely nothing on gun safety employ."
Himes said he gets "so angry" with Congress because of its inaction on gun control laws.
"Last night, instead we stopped talking about sports and dinner and had 20 seconds of silence," said Himes. "We do nothing when we could save lives."
Many critics would say that background checks would not have stopped the Las Vegas killings or those in Himes' home state of Connecticut to stop the Sandy Hook Elementary school killings, pointed out show host Joe Scarborough, and Himes admitted that could be true.
"That's the other tool that people use when they try to stop any action," Himes said. "We will never stop gun violence in the country any more than we'll stop any other kind of violence in the country or any more than Sweden or Norway or Great Britain can stop gun violence."
Universal background checks, he continued, are "supported by some 90 percent of the American people," and even if they would not have stopped the Las Vegas killings, violence would go down nationwide.
"Las Vegas is a fantastic example as the kind of thing that makes the papers," said Himes. "But as you know, every single day in this country, there are almost two Las Vegases."
Out of average of 90 people daily who die after being shot, "two thirds of [them] die because there's a gun improperly stored in the house," said Himes. "We could do something about it."
He admitted there is "no silver bullet here," but there are three or four pieces of legislation that could reduce the number of guns on the streets, and reduce the ability of people with violent records to acquire weapons.
"Let's get beyond law," said Himes. "I happen to believe there are probably a half dozen things we can do that are consistent with Second Amendment rights ... there are lots of things we could go to bring our mortality more in line with the rest of the civilized world."
Himes, who lives less than 25 miles from Newtown, the site of the Sandy Hook shooting, said he's been clear on his feelings about gun violence and Congress' lack of action.
"I said after Orlando I'm not participating in moments of silence in rooms where you could fix the problems," said Himes. "It's worse than that. Right now somewhere in this building the leadership is trying to figure out what the decent interval of time is between the horrific murders and when they can bring forward the bill ... the American people need to start holding their representatives accountable for not doing a couple of the things we know have massive support in this country."