days as mayor of providence. congressman, thank you so nuch for your time this morning. just this morning, we want to start with this. you sent a letter to attorney general loretta lynch regarding gunman john houser. tell us exactly what you re asking for. well i m asking the attorney general to open an investigation really to determine how it is that mr. houser was able to purchase a gun. whatever your view is on guns i think everyone would agree we have to keep guns outs of the hands of children criminals, and people when such serious mental illness that possession of a gun will cause danger to themselves or the community. it is clear this individual purchased a gunnel in the state of alabama at a pawnshop and apparently was involuntarily committed on a prior occasion in the state of georgia, which is disqualifying under federal law. so i have asked the attorney general to review this to figure out where the system broke down and then what we can do to improve that system to be sur
observations should that play a part in whether someone should be able to access a gun? that s a good question. this is a very angry man who apparently suffered from bipolar disorder. he was involuntarily committed to a hospital and he had lost his business lost his wife in a divorce. here he walks into a pawnshop and purchases a 40-caliber weapon legally. the question is how to a keep guns outs of the hands of people who are mentally challenged let s say? there are hipaa laws background checks. there are many people who own guns who don t go around shooting people. so that s the trick. how do you keep guns out of the hands of emotionally disturbed people? i m not sure what the answer is. but certainly the vast majority of people that have guns don t
to enforce the laws we ve already got, make sure that we re keeping guns outs of the hands of criminals, those who mump better job in terms of background check, but we ve got more to do when it comes to enforcement. i also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don t belong on our streets. and so what i m trying to do is about how do we reduce the violence generally. part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced, but part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence, because frankly in my hometown of chicago there s an awful lot of violence. they re not using ak-47s, they re using cheap handguns. what can we do to intervene to make sure that young people have opportunity? that our schools are working, that if there s violence on the streets, that working with faith
to enforce the laws we ve already got, make sure that we re keeping guns outs of the hands of criminals, those who mump better job in terms of background check, but we ve got more to do when it comes to enforcement. i also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don t belong on our streets. and so what i m trying to do is about how do we reduce the violence generally. part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced, but part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence, because frankly in my hometown of chicago there s an awful lot of violence. they re not using ak-47s, they re using cheap handguns. what can we do to intervene to make sure that young people have opportunity? that our schools are working, that if there s violence on the streets, that working with faith