Loopholes must be closed in federal background checks, as has been done in Colorado after a pair of horrific shootings, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said Thursday.
"It's important for us to close the loopholes that exist in the federal background checks," Bennet, who was the superintendent of Denver Public Schools before becoming a senator, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "That's what we've done in Colorado. You ask why aren't things possible in Washington? It's a mystery."
In Colorado, lawmakers closed loopholes and a law was passed through the state's legislature that limited the size of ammunition magazines, Bennet said, and "we should do the same thing in Washington."
The moves have made a considerable impact in the state, he continued.
Out of 380,000 people applying gun permits last year, about 8,000 were denied, Bennet said, including applications from "murderers, rapists, domestic murders, rapists, domestic abusers."
"I challenge anybody in the United States Senate to come down here and make the case that Colorado is not safer for having kept guns out of the hands of murders, rapists and domestic abusers," Bennet said. "We could do it at a national level."
It is important the nation does not just move on to the next news, Bennet said, who noted his state has also seen a slate of shootings of law enforcement officers in the past few months.
When it comes to school shootings, Bennet said, in his experience, children do not move on.
"They carry this with them day after day after day, through their middle school years. Through their high school years."
It is "deeply unfair" for children to have to carry such a burden, he continued.
"It's not just the loss of life which is horrible and horrific, it's the effect it has on the culture and on the lives of our children," he said.
"We ought to do something about that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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