Rep. King: Majority of Congress doesn’t want further gun regulation

<p>Rep. Peter King, a Republican Long Island congressman who has repeatedly called for stricter background checks, says he doubts Congress will act on gun control -- even as the national debate again heats up following a mass shooting at a Texas church Sunday.</p>

News 12 Staff

Nov 6, 2017, 7:29 PM

Updated 2,533 days ago

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Rep. Peter King, a Republican Long Island congressman who has repeatedly called for stricter background checks, says he doubts Congress will act on gun control -- even as the national debate again heats up following a mass shooting at a Texas church Sunday.
King had introduced background check legislation last Friday but says he has little expectation of new laws, even in the wake of Sunday's shooting that left 26 dead and others injured.
"I've introduced legislation on background checks for gun shows, also to keep people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing a gun," he says. "I've been here for a number of these massacres, and Congress does not act. There's a solid majority of the Congress that does not believe that any further gun regulation is necessary. I disagree with them, but that's the majority of Congress."
King's bill would expand background checks to all commercial firearms sales. He says it would keep guns out of the hands of felons, domestic abusers and the mentally ill. It's the fourth time he's introduced the bill.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the shooting had nothing to do with gun laws.
"I think that mental health is your problem here," he said while on a trip to Asia. "This was a very, based on preliminary reports, very deranged individual."
Andrew Chernoff, the owner of Coliseum Gun Traders in Uniondale, agrees. 
"It doesn't matter how many laws we have," he says. "And as the president said, and I have to give him credit, we don't have a gun problem here. We have a mental illness problem here that we are not tending to."
He pointed to the recent terror attack in New York City that involved a truck, not a gun, and left eight people dead and more injured.
"I don't hear about any truck laws to go along with that," he says.