CNN's The Lead
January 18, 2024
4:11 p.m. Eastern
JAKE TAPPER: Lastly, whether it's red flag laws or raising the age where somebody can purchase or even possess a firearm, is there any gun restriction that you support now that you didn't support before Uvalde that might have helped prevent this?
CONGRESSMAN TONY GONZALES (R-TX): You know, I continue to look for common sense things. I do not support a weapons ban of any sort or universal background check of any sort. I do not support anything that infringes upon the Constitution or prevents those from having due process. I do, however, support, and I do think we can work in a manner that protects the Constitution and protects our children, and that is he space I'm looking for to operate in. I think there's a lot of people -- more and more people, Jake, have a direct story of, you know, a shooting in their their district or their state, and I do think there is -- there is a growing number of law makers that do want to have sensible solutions. I am committed to that, and I look forward to continue to work my colleagues and the White House to find reasonable solutions.
TAPPER: Why don't you support universal background checks? If people have to go through background checks to buy a firearm at a gun store, why shouldn't they have to go through it at a gun show, especially when there are clearly individuals -- we've seen a lot of shootings in the last few years from individuals who clearly are not right, and a basic background check might have prevented tragedy?
CONGRESSMAN GONZALES: Yeah, it's about due process -- it's about how long. And in some cases, you know, a backlog of a background check will prevent someone -- a person from legally purchasing a firearm. So that's what I don't want to see happen -- is a person who's legally abiding by the rules doing everything they can -- not be able to purchase a firearm in a reasonable amount of time because there's this excess backlog.