Patty Judge
Patty Judge, the Democrat running against Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, says it’s time make it “impossible” for someone who is or has been on the FBI’s terrorist watch list to buy a gun.
“I would support that wholeheartedly, without reservation,” Judge says. “…If we’re worried about somebody getting on an airplane, then I don’t think they need to be going out to buy an assault weapon and that just makes sense.”
Senator Grassley is opposed to the move. Grassley says some people have been wrongly placed on the “watch list” and the ban would violate their constitutional right to buy a gun.
Judge says she supports Second Amendment gun rights, but she says the Orlando massacre highlighted a flaw in the nation’s gun laws that allowed someone who’d been on the FBI’s watch list buy an assault-style weapon.
“We can’t keep brushing this under the rug, time after time,” Judge says.
Gun safety is an issue that voters care about, according to Judge.
“People are afraid,” Judge says. “They’re afraid to go to out and enjoy social activities outside their home. They’re afraid to go to a restaurant or out to a shopping mall for fear that something may happen to them or their children. This is America, for gosh sakes. We’ve got to do better.”
Judge made her comments during an interview with KGLO Radio in Mason City.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate launched a filibuster Wednesday morning, seeking to force Republicans to vote on the proposal. Senator Grassley issued a written statement, accusing Democrats of using the tragedy in Orlando to further their “gun control agenda” and to “change the subject away” from President Obama’s failure to have a strategy to stop radical Islam.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has tweeted that he supports keeping people on the terrorism watch list from buying guns and Trump says he plans to meet with the NRA to discuss the issue.
(Reporting by KGLO’s Bob Fisher in Mason City and Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson in Des Moines.)