able to pass tougher gun laws. i m curious to know if you think this is a more effective strategy that since there s a paralysis in congress to get this done, should state legislators take this up and see if they can have better success in trying to impose tougher gun laws on a state level? it s important that the states move forward but at the end of the day, aymon, we need to have federal legislation, because frankly, the trafficking and passing of weapons across state lines can only be dealt with at the national level and that s why it s so critically important that we strengthen the national instant criminal background check system, we close the gun show and internet loopholes and frankly, we also close the fact that right now, if you wait three days, this is what some are calling the charleston loophole, if after three days of waiting for an affirmative clean bill of health on a background check, a gun seller can still go ahead and sell the gun and the people who don t pass in a
everybody said it wouldn t happen. this is not a soft deal. this is actually less symbolism. it s one of these wonderful times, sam, in politics, where the easiest thing to do may be the most important thing to do. there has always been two conversations, right? there are instances of mass killing in which an assault weapon ban does have an effect and a magazine and those get massive headlines. and 90% of all gun violence done via handguns. in which case you have the gun show loophole and internet loopholes and that matter. the sun times had a story about a guy got a gun and didn t have to go through background checks on an internet sell. these are the type of things that happened with respect to gun violence every day in america and this bill will have more effect on that than i think an assault weapons ban would have. when this debate started this
violence reports that more than 2 million gun sales to people who failed their background checks have been blocked in the past two decades. that includes more than a million would-be sales to felons and more than a quarter million to domestic abusers. that s the good news. but efforts to close gun show and internet loopholes which account for about 40% of gun sales have failed. and speaking at an anniversary event today, nancy pelosi pointed out it s not because background checks are unpopular. if we take this bill up on the floor, it will pass. the votes are there. the american people are more than there. last year, johns hopkins university researchers found universal background checks are popular across the board with a vast majority of both gun owners and nra members saying basically yes, we approve. that poll was conducted shortly after the december 2012 mass shootings in connect the cut that killed 26 children and