Senator Ed Markey believes that Congress is past due for a historic showdown on gun control.
"I think we're close to a tipping point," Markey said on Boston Public Radio Wednesday. "30,000 people are killed every year with guns. There's been 125 school shootings since Sandy Hook, which is absolutely unbelievable."
Markey is one of a bloc of Senate Democrats leading the charge on a new gun control legislation package. Their proposal focuses on three core issues: closing the loopholes that allow online gun sales and sales at gun shows without background checks, prohibiting domestic abusers to buy guns, and closing loopholes in "straw man" purchases, when a person buys a gun for someone who cannot.
Senate Democrats have threatened to block other bills unless their gun control proposal comes up for a vote.
"What we as Democrats in the Senate have decided to do is we're going to rally around three issues that even gun owners believe should be put on the books as new laws," Markey said.
Markey believes that excluding more controversial gun control measures from the bill will be key to its success. In 2013, for example, the Obama Administration pushed for a ban on assault weapons in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook, but the provision was ultimately dropped due to lack of support.
"If the NRA is strong enough to be able to beat this back, we're setting up a real showdown first on the Senate floor and then in the elections of 2016," Markey said. "Because background checks, it seems to me, is something everyone now agrees is necessary."
To hear more from Senator Ed Markey, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.
