Representative Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) appeared on MSNBC to advocate for banning assault rifles in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left 26 people dead; 20 children and six adults.
Nadler said:
"I mean, if we could really do what we should do, I would make it a crime to possess, after a period of buy-backs, a crime to possess an assault rifle or high capacity magazine. As it is a crime to possess drugs. that's certainly more harmful than drugs. That's not likely to happen but the least we can do is ban the sale of assault weapons, ban the sale of high ammunition clips, get rid of the gun show loophole under which anyone can buy a gun site at a gun show. Ban gun trafficking, that is limit sale of guns to one a month or something so you can't go to Virginia, buy 40 weapons and ship it illegally into New York where you have stronger gun control laws. These are things we can do, we know to do, and we know will greatly reduce the number of innocent people killed every year. They won't eliminate it but they will greatly reduce it."
Assault weapons are covered underneath the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, that entails that it is a basic right American right to own guns.