The hosts of CBS This Morning, the network’s morning television program, lamented Thursday how tougher gun control laws have not been enacted in the aftermath of recent shootings to restrict the ability of some Americans to access firearms.
The debate over gun control has come to the forefront of the country’s political discourse since the deadly Islamic State-inspired terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, that occurred late Saturday night.
Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration are pushing for new gun laws with the intent of keeping guns out of the hands of people who may use them for violence against others.
CBS host Norah O’Donnell reported Thursday morning that Vice President Joe Biden said the prior night that America’s gun safety policy "borders on the irrational" at a fundraiser for Sandy Hook Promise, a group that works to prevent gun violence and advocates for stricter gun control. The group was founded by family members of the Sandy Hook shooting, which occurred in December 2012 at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, resulting in the deaths of 20 children and six adult staff members.
"Biden said President Obama told him the Sandy Hook shooting was maybe the saddest day of our administration," O’Donnell said. "I’ve heard the president say that."
Co-hosts Charlie Rose and Gayle King also said they heard Obama previously make the same comment, with King adding, "I checked with a Sandy Hook parent yesterday that said when they heard about the Orlando shooting, it just makes you numb and sad and angry all over again."
Rose then bemoaned how stricter gun control measures were not enacted after Sandy Hook.
"And you remember at that time, we thought maybe there would be change, but it didn’t happen," Rosen said in a disappointed tone.
"Yes," O’Donnell can be hear saying in the background.
"Yes, Charlie," King said. "And if it doesn’t happen with the little children that were slaughtered in their classrooms with their baby teeth, what is it going to take? I don’t understand how high the death toll has to go, but maybe, just maybe, there will be a change."
The CBS hosts appeared to be advocating for the gun control measures that Democrats are pushing in Congress. The senator leading the current charge for new legislation, Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), who appeared on the show earlier to discuss his proposals, could not say whether the laws he and other Senate Democrats are pushing would have stopped the jihadist in Orlando from carrying out his attack.