House Speaker Paul Ryan says the latest school shooting should not lead to taking away gun rights. On an Indianapolis radio station, the Janesville Republican was asked about Wednesday’s shooting, that left 17 dead at a Florida high school.
“It’s just a horrific, horrific, horrible, horrible shooting,” Ryan said on WIBC Thursday morning. “I think we need to pray. Out hearts go out to these victims.”
Ryan told host Tony Katz that in the wake of last year’s church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the House voted to close gaps in reporting to the federal background-check system — although he said the U.S. Senate has not yet acted on that.
“So it’s not as if nothing has been done to enforce the laws we have on the books, and make sure that bad people who aren’t supposed to get guns don’t get guns,” Ryan said. “But I don’t that means you then roll the conversation into taking away citizens’ rights. Obviously this conversation typically goes there. Right now, I just think we need to take a breath and collect the facts.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks special issue spending, Ryan received more than $171,000 from the National Rifle Association during the 2016 election cycle.
On Thursday, a Florida judge orders the 19-year-old man who is a suspect in the deadly shooting rampage at a Parkland high school to be held without bond on 17 counts of murder.