McCain hosts gun-focused town hall in Phoenix
Feb 20, 2013, 2:10 PM | Updated: 2:10 pm
PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain held a town hall Wednesday in Phoenix that focused almost entirely on gun control in America.
A crowd of about 150 appeared to be evenly divided by gun supporters and opponents. McCain told the crowd that Congress will not pass an assault weapons ban.
Karen Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting, said she was not pleased with McCain’s assertion that an assault weapons ban is out of the question.
“What he doesn’t realize that 81 percent of Americans, 71 percent of gun owners and 60 percent of NRA members support renewing the assault weapons ban,” she said.
McCain did not say if he supports or opposes universal background checks for all gun buyers which many believe will close the so-called gun show loophole.
“Obviously we have two goals: Keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill,” he said. “We need to take measures to achieve that.”
That assault weapons ban was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1994 and expired in 2004.
At a Sun Lakes town hall Tuesday, McCain was grilled about immigration reform. It was a much calmer town hall on Wednesday.
