VIDEO: Sen.. Jim Risch (R) Talks Gun Control on CBS THIS MORNING

By: Apr. 10, 2013
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Senator Jim Risch (R-ID), one of the 14 Republican senators who promised to filibuster any gun control legislation, said the "background check system doesn't work," in an interview which was broadcast live today, April 10, 2013, on "CBS THIS MORNING" on the CBS Television Network (7:00 AM - 9:00 AM). Watch the appearance in full below!

"I want to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them," Risch said.
"The background check, at least under the system we have today, is not an effective way of doing that."

Risch said it was "disappointing" not to be able to stop a piece of legislation.

"This is what Congress does frequently - they pass a bill like this and say, 'there it is, good, we fixed it,' and the fact is they haven't fixed it," Risch said.

Excerpts from the interview are below.

O'DONNELL: Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho is one of those 14 Republican senators who are promising a filibuster to block any vote on tighter gun laws. He's with us now from Capitol Hill. Senator, good morning. It appears this morning that Senate Democrats have enough votes to foil your effort to filibuster gun control legislation. Does that disappoint you?

RISCH: Well, of course it's disappointing when you want to stop a piece of legislation but can't. But no one really expected that we wouldn't get to a vote on this. There's going to be a debate on this, which is a good thing. And eventually a vote, and we'll see how this legislation shakes out. The Democrats are saying this'll take some weeks to do this, so we'll have plenty of time to talk about this as time goes on.

KING: Senator, how effective is the lobbying from Newtown families, on you personally, and what are you hearing from your colleagues?

RISCH: I'm a father, I'm a grandfather. I watched, as all America did, in horror at what happened at Newtown, and you can't help but be affected personally by that sort of thing. All of us would like to be able to do something to help those people. And you always feel that way when a tragedy happens.



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