Durbin Expects Expanded Background Checks For Guns
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois U.S. Senator Richard Durbin says he expects Congress will vote to expand background checks for weapons purchases to include gun shows.
Senator Durbin says if there is one element of President Obama's gun control measures he expects to see passed the quickest it would be the universal background checks. The public, he says, wants them.
Durbin Expects Expanded Background Checks For Guns
"If you're on the terrorist list of the United States of America, should you be able to buy a firearm?" says Durbin. "The simple answer is of course not, and yet at a gun show you can. If you have a felony conviction in your background, should you be able to buy a firearm? No, but you can at a gun show today."
The senator says even some lawmakers who have supported the National Rifle Association have spoken out on this issue. So what worries him?
"Time has passed and that is not a friend to this issue. As time passes things mellow out and the NRA gets its day to approach these people with their local membership," says Durbin.
Still, he thinks the votes will be there.
