Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) heaped criticism on the National Rifle Association Sunday for its words over the weekend during annual meetings in Houston, Texas.
In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," the No. 2 Senate Democrat blasted the group's decision to applaud the fall of the bipartisan background checks bill brought to the Senate floor back in mid-April.
“The National Rifle Association can go to Texas and celebrate defeating that measure, but they certainly shouldn’t celebrate when they look at the carnage that takes place virtually every day in America because convicted felons have guns,” Durbin said.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre held a different view on Saturday, saying that the legislation sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) "got the defeat that it deserved."
"We will never surrender our guns, never," LaPierre told thousands.
Last week, Toomey revealed that the bill's inability to break a filibuster may have had little to do with guns. In an interview with the Norristown (Pa.) Times Herald, the GOP cosponsor admitted that many of his Republican colleagues did not want to help President Barack Obama.
"In the end it didn’t pass because we're so politicized," he told the paper. "There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it."
Before You Go
