Dem Sen. Kelly: Actual Details of Brown Shooting 'Matter, to Some Extent,' But We Know We Need Gun Control

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) acknowledged that we don’t really know anything about the Brown University shooter, including the kind of weapons he used or how those weapons were obtained, and “those details do matter, to some extent, but we pretty much know how this works, … Places that have stronger gun laws have less gun violence.”

Kelly said, “[T]he thing that now goes through my mind every time I hear about one of these things is just how horribly have members of Congress and administrations failed young people in this country. These kids who grow up having to do practice for mass shootings, and many of them experience them themselves in real lockdowns. And, in this case, we have a kid that was shot herself in high school and now is involved in this mass shooting at Brown University. So, Washington, D.C. and state legislatures have clearly failed the American people.”

Host Anderson Cooper then asked, “We don’t really know anything about this shooter, nor the kind of weapon or weapons he used. How much would that information guide next steps in Rhode Island, potentially nationwide?”

Kelly answered, “Well, it’s all going to be part of the investigation. And those details do matter, to some extent, but we pretty much know how this works, Anderson. Places that have stronger gun laws have less gun violence. If you look around the country, that’s very clear. And countries that have stronger gun laws than the United States have significantly lower rates of gun violence. You travel anywhere in Europe or Asia, you ask anybody if they know anybody who’s ever been shot, and it’s really, really hard to find somebody. You ask that question in the United States, and my experience has been, if I’ve got a room full of people, I ask if anybody knows somebody who’s been shot, it’s about 50%, consistently.”

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