Here & Now

On the Issues: Guns and Gun Control

Shawn Johnson:
Up next, the topic of guns and gun control. Leah Vukmir has an A+ rating from the NRA. Tammy Baldwin has an F. Tonight we hear first from Leah Vukmir. We asked her whether there should be measures in place to allow taking guns from people who demonstrate danger, as in so-called red flag laws. She speaks about a new law aimed at improving the national background check system in order to prevent felons and domestic abusers from purchasing firearms. Tammy Baldwin follows her with her support for universal checks.

Leah Vukmir:
That’s an area that I think needs to be investigated and looked at very carefully. As long as those laws are carefully looking at particular issues. For example, the Fix NICS bill that was done by Senator Cornyn, looked specifically at that, making sure that law enforcement and individuals have the information necessary when they see red flags. We also have to make sure we have a carefully-crafted law that looks at mental health issues, because that is a significant aspect that underlies a lot of these. And I’d rather look at those aspects before we start looking at taking away people’s guns from them. Because when you do that, you are taking away the ability of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and that’s why I stand so strongly with that Second Amendment right and as you know, have been endorsed by the NRA.

Tammy Baldwin:
I’m a gun owner myself. And so I strongly support the Second Amendment. But I do not think that the Second Amendment precludes common sense safety legislation. At the federal level, I think we need to have a comprehensive universal background check with no loopholes for internet sales or going to gun shows and not having a thorough background check. And then I think we have to go beyond there. There are a number of provisions relating to, frankly, the ability to convert a semiautomatic weapon into an automatic weapon with a bump stock. And I think we should be considering these enormous magazines that can allow so many shots to be fired. Those aren’t needed for — those are weapons of war basically on our streets and we’ve got to step up.

Frederica Freyberg:
On this issue, let’s recall that Leah Vukmir’s first campaign ad featured her with a gun at her side. But of late, Vukmir is laying on the ads for the Tomah Veterans Hospital opioid controversy and the death of a veteran there of an overdose. In those ads, she blames Tammy Baldwin. For Baldwin’s part, she did discipline top aides over her offense’s response to that. She also released an ad describing her own mother’s struggles with addiction. So these are some of the other kinds of issues that are coming out in this U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin.

Shawn Johnson:
Yeah, it seems like election cycle after election cycle, there are people who think maybe this will be the year that the gun issue or gun control is kind of a centerpiece of the campaigns that we’re going to talk about for the next, you know, couple years. We had mass shootings in the past couple years that have really energized younger voters, for example. So the issue is very much in front of people. But when it comes to campaigns, general election campaigns, you do see it tend to fade off into the distance and something like Tomah, the VA becomes something that Leah Vukmir wants to highlight and Tammy Baldwin feels the need to step in and kind of stake out her ground, too.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you think over the next fewer than six weeks, we should be expecting in this race?

Laurel White:
I think we’ll hear more about the Tomah VA scandal and I think we’ll hear about something that’s related to the Tomah VA scandal, the opioid epidemic. I think both women talk frequently about their different ideas for combating the opioid epidemic in Wisconsin. That’s something that we’ll continue to see. And I think that we’ll continue to see them getting very personal. We’ve seen that from Leah Vukmir in her first ads introducing herself to voters and we’re seeing that in a new way from Tammy Baldwin this time that we really haven’t from her in the past. Where she’s talking about her past, her mother’s addiction when she was growing up and things like that.

Frederica Freyberg:
I think we leave it there. And we thank you very much, Laurel, for joining us.

Laurel White:
Thanks for having me.