Michael F. Easley Quotes

If I were governor, and a bill came to my desk that provided for background checks at gun shows, I would sign that.

I just want to repeat that there's nothing that we've proposed that would make it harder for you to purchase a firearm.

I haven't pursued it as a senator because I know it's like spitting in the wind. But I still believe it's the right thing. And if I were governor and a bill came to my desk that provided for background checks at gun shows, I would sign that.

The Brady Act was passed in response to what Congress described as an 'epidemic of gun violence.'

Closing the gun show loophole would be a good thing to do.

Background checks will never stop every criminal from getting their hands on a gun and every single act of gun violence - but the evidence is clear that it's the single most effective policy to help keep guns out of dangerous hands and save lives.

We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them. I won't chip away at them. I believe they help protect us and provide for our safety. I'm sure my positions won't make me the hero of the NRA.

I'm concerned about how and why there is no gun control.

If it was up to me, if you uttered the word 'gun control,' we'd put you in jail.

I believe strongly that commonsense gun safety measures would assist us.

Do not tell me that I have not shown courage in standing up to the gun people, in voting to ban assault weapons, voting for instant background checks, voting to end the gun show loophole and now in a position to create a consensus in America on gun safety.

Gun registration is not enough.

Gun owners and non-gun owners alike agree on expanding background checks, making gun trafficking a serious crime with stiff penalties, making it illegal for all stalkers and all domestic abusers to buy guns, and expanding mental health resources so the mentally ill find it easier to receive treatment than to buy firearms.

So many deaths could be prevented if measures were implemented to expand background checks and keep individuals like John Hinckley from ever buying firearms in the first place.

After a week of back and forth, and forth and back over firearms, it's good to see a consensus developing on this common-sense amendment to keep handguns away from children.

Most Americans think there's already universal background checks. They don't understand why there wouldn't be a background check to purchase a weapon.

Let me share some facts with you about the law in most of our country. California is in many ways a little different from the rest of the world, and California has better gun laws than many states, although California's need to be improved.

It would be refreshing to have a politician try to defend guns without any reference to the Second Amendment, but on the merits of guns.

There are online forms you can fill out to send to your lawmakers, demanding that nothing - nothing at all or in any way - be done about any guns whatever, anywhere.

If we're going to change the laws, let's change them in ways which makes it easier to catch criminals, and yet at the same time protect the Second Amendment rights of our law-abiding citizens.

Unless they're a fugitive or a felon, or adjudicated mentally ill, we're not against them buying guns at all.

As President Obama is inaugurated for a second time, the biggest political surprise is that gun control is now key to his political legacy.

I think that it's very, very hard for the NRA to continue to defend the position that people who are on the terrorist watch list should be allowed to buy firearms in this country. That's their position. I don't know how they stand by it.

No studies have been done to link gun legislation to declining firearms-related deaths, but you can draw your own conclusions.

Our neighbors in Virginia are just as responsible for these killings as the criminals are because they won't pass strong gun control legislation.