On Tuesday, CNN's Chris Cuomo challenged former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) to explain why he isn't in favor of universal background checks in the wake of the Odessa killer having obtained his gun from a private sale — and Santorum's response was reduced to confused shouting.
"Often, you guys will say, hey, what difference would it have made in this case what you want to do?" said Cuomo. "In this case, it would have stopped this from happening, if gun sales, no matter what the type of transaction went through a background check, this wouldn't have happened. Why not do it?"
"This really does show that passing a lot of laws sometimes are good things to do to try to stop people from doing bad thing, but they're only good if they're enforced," said Santorum. "There's a report out just last year in September that said 181,000 people misrepresented themselves on a background check were found ineligible to purchase a gun and almost none were prosecuted. I'm not sure any were prosecuted."
"I hear you except the current law wouldn't catch this person—" said Cuomo.
"It should have," said Santorum heatedly.
"Hold on, Rick. They caught him when he failed a background check. They didn't prosecute it. My point—"
"That is the point," said Santorum. "You don't know what would have happened in the prosecution."
"Rick, I'm telling you, it's a distraction from the point," said Cuomo. "Whether it's a gun show — listen, Rick, I don't know what you're getting frustrated by. Whether it's a gun show or a private sale, why wouldn't you have all transactions checked? There's no logic to support allowing any transactions to go without a background check."
"I'm concerned about, and I think a lot of people who are concerned about the Second Amendment are concerned about, which is they unduly put restraint on people, 99 percent of whom are law-abiding people, to catch people that you can do a lot of other things much more efficiently—"
"How is it an undue restraint?" cut in Cuomo. "I want to give one of my guns to my son. Okay. I just go, I go to a store, you find an apparatus, and you have him checked. He's okay. He can have a gun. My freedom is intact. His freedom is intact and we are not burdening the freedom that people have to not have a bullet put through their head."
"As in this case, there are much more effective ways in targeting people who are dangerous with guns than asking people who are not dangerous with guns," said Santorum.
"The guy goes around the background check — why wouldn't you close the loophole?" said Cuomo.
"Why wouldn't you prosecute the guy in the first place?" shouted Santorum.
"Why wouldn't you do both?" replied Cuomo. "Law-abiding people will get their guns. I don't get this. I'm a gun owner. I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in every amendment in the Constitution. The idea that some sales will be checked, but other sales won't be checked is basically saying we're not that concerned about who gets weapons in these different situations and now you have a guy who just murdered people with a loophole that you won't close."
Watch below:
