Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) said Wednesday that he remains a fervent supporter of Second Amendment rights, but he doesn’t consider an expansion of background checks for firearms purchases to constitute “gun control.”
Toomey, who was appearing at a Capitol Hill press conference along with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to unveil their proposed bill for gun background checks, highlighted his Second Amendment credentials.
“I’m a gun owner, and the rights that are enshrined in the Second Amendment are very, very important to me personally, as I know they are to so many people across Pennsylvania. My record shows this,” Toomey said. “But I gotta tell you candidly, I don’t consider criminal background checks to be gun control. I think it’s just common sense. If you pass a criminal background check, you get to buy a gun. It’s no problem. It’s the people who fail, a criminal or a mental health background check, that we don’t want having guns.”
