Former GOP Rep. David Jolly, who represented Florida’s 13th congressional district, tore into his own party on Thursday over its historic reaction to mass shootings, telling CNN’s Don Lemon “Republicans will never do anything on gun control.”

“We have a broken nation on the issue of guns,” Jolly said. “Let’s be brutally honest about what we do know. I say this as a Republican: Republicans will never do anything on gun control.”

Jolly noted last year “you had Republican members of Congress shot and nearly killed after a softball practice”–and the party still did nothing.

“The idea of gun policy in the Republican party is to try to get the speaking slot at the NRA and prove that constituency that you’re further right,” Jolly said.

“If this is the issue that defines your ideology as a voter, there’s two things that I suggest tonight,” Jolly continued. “First, flip the house. Flip the house. Republicans are not going to do a single thing after this shooting today.”

Jolly also said Democrats can “work for incremental wins,” including universal background checks.

“Democrats should go to the law enforcement community and say, ‘We’re going to leave the Republicans behind and let’s work on this together right now and get the will of the American people to be enacted in the United States Congress,’” Jolly offered.

Lemon told the former Republican Congressman, “If I was with you, I would hug you right now. honestly.”

“Let me be honest,” Jolly replied. “I’m a conservative Second Amendment person who sponsored some pretty hard-core Second Amendment bills … I believe in Second Amendment issues, but I believe in background checks and reasonable restrictions—maybe even banning assault rifles.”

Watch the video below;

"Republicans will never do anything on gun control," says former GOP Rep. David Jolly. "The idea of gun policy in the Republican party is to try to get a speaking slot at the NRA and prove to that constituency that you are further right" pic.twitter.com/4hjcC7910e

— CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) February 15, 2018

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