Colorado Gov. Refuses To Call For Stronger Gun Laws In Wake Of Theater Shooting

During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) refused to call for stronger gun control laws in the wake of the tragic movie theater shooting in his state. After saying that a reexamination of Colorado’s gun control laws is “going to happen,” Hickenlooper told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that even if there were stronger restrictions, the alleged shooter would “have found something else” to commit the murders:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does it make you think, at this point, that you need to take another look at Colorado’s gun laws?

HICKENLOOPER: You know, I’m sure that’s going to happen. But I look at this — this wasn’t a Colorado problem, this was a human problem, right, and how we can have such a warped individual and no one around them be aware. I worry that if we got rid of all the guns — certainly, we have so many guns in this country and we do have a lot more gun violence — but even if he didn’t have access to guns, this guy was diabolical, right? He would have found explosives, he would have found something else, some sort of poisonous gas, something to create this horror.

Hickenlooper made similar comments on CNN’s State of the Union. As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Virginia’s Senate candidates also dodged gun control questions.

The weapon used by the alleged shooter would have been covered by the assault weapons ban that was allowed to expire in 2004. The high capacity clip used was also covered by the ban. Later during ABC’s show, former Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) said that no citizen should have access to an assault rifle. “No one should have that kind of killing machine,” he said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=258_W_hmQ2M
5:56 min in on quote.