Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist who worked on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, urged GOP lawmakers Sunday to support universal background checks as the best political strategy for their party.
“Look, Connecticut was a game changer,” Navarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We need to understand that. The gun issue is here. It’s not going away. Every other day we are hearing about a tragedy on the news. And people keep asking, ‘What are we doing about it?'”
Navarro continued: “Republican and the NRA should be part of the solution, should be part of the conversation, not just say, ‘No.’ And universal background checks is something that there could be consensus on.”
The National Rifle Association backed universal background checks in the late 1990s but today opposes the idea.
Carly Fiorina, a former Republican Senate candidate from California, also backed universal background checks during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “But universal background checks, let’s deal with the mental health system,” Fiorina said. “Personally, I would even support banning high-capacity magazines.”
Fiorina said the NRA “overplayed their hand” by coming out against universal checks.
