Sen. Lindsey Graham shouts down CNN host over keeping private gun transfers secret

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday became angry and shouted at CNN host Candy Crowley over the notion that people who receive guns as gifts would have to undergo background checks.

In an interview on CNN's State of the Union, Crowley asked Graham if he would be willing to support a Democratic bill to close the gun show loophole and require background checks for private sales.

"Would you filibuster that?" Crowley wondered.

"No, if get an alternative to it," Graham replied. "I would vote against it. This idea that private individuals transferring their weapons and having to go through a background check makes no sense. Before you'd expand a background check, there are 76,000 people last year who failed a background check. And less than 1 percent got prosecuted."

Crowley noted that a recent CBS News poll found that 96 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans supported universal background checks.

"Well, if you ask the question, should a father have to do a background check when they their son a gun for Christmas, most people would say that's not necessary," the senior South Carolina senator insisted.

"This is a little different," Crowley pointed out. "This is about just if you go to a gun show."

"No, that's what the bill does!" Graham exclaimed. "The bill requires private individual transfers to through the federal system! The current system broken. I hope most Americans understand that 80,000 people last year failed a background check and only 66 got prosecuted. Why in the world would you expand that system -- if you're not enforcing the law the exists today -- to include private transfers?"

"So, I think that legislation is going nowhere."

Watch this video from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast March 31, 2013.