Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., called on Congress to pass background check legislation in the wake of two fatal mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend.
Toomey tweeted Sunday:
"While no law will end mass shootings entirely, it's time for Congress to act to keep our communities safer. We should start by passing bipartisan proposals such as my legislation with Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to expand background checks to all commercial firearm sales."
The senator also tweeted the "perpetrators of these murders are cowards. We must do more to keep guns out of the hands of psychopaths."
Early Saturday, a gunman opened fire at a crowded El Paso, Texas, Walmart, killing 20 people and injuring dozens more, and less than a day later, a shooter killed nine people in an early morning assault in Dayton's nightlife district.
Earlier this year, the House passed universal background check legislation prohibiting person-to-person firearms sales without a background check, reports The Hill. However, the bill has been on hold in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The Toomey-Manchin bill was first introduced back in 2013 and called for expanded background checks that would include sales made online and through gun-show dealers.
Toomey also tweeted Sunday he agrees with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for the need of a "bipartisan 'red flag' measure" that would allow families and law enforcement to keep guns away from dangerous people.
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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