Congressman O’Halleran speaks on Boulder shooting

Ten people were killed in a Boulder grocery store, just days after the mass shooting in Atlanta. We talked to Congressman Tom O’Halleran about the country’s latest bout with such violence.

After getting out of a meeting, O’Halleran was notified by his daughter about the shooting. “My heart just sunk, not only for those families and people in the Colorado area but for our nation. We can’t just continue to go through this time and time again. We have to come together,” O’Halleran said.

President Biden called for expanding background checks in his remarks about the shooting. “We have to find a way as a congress and as a people, to come together on this and work on it, not in starts and stops and starts and stops. Sit down at the table and work on it together, until we get the answer,” O’Halleran said.

The shooting has brought up debate about the second amendment, however O’Halleran doesn’t believe that is an issue. He believes the other elements involved in gun ownership are the issue. “People are allowed to have guns, they are. They have to use them safely. We have to make sure that people that have the guns are not former felons,” O’Halleran said.

Debate has also stirred about assault riffles being allowed, which according to police, was the weapon in the Boulder shooting. “There are millions of them out there but we have to take a look at the Second Amendment, as it stands today, and identify if they were purchased legally by people that were allowed to purchase them. We either have a buy-back program or something else that allows there to be safety in our streets. But, assault weapons are a step further than background checks right now, and we can’t even get background checks done,” O’Halleran said.