In the final days of his congressional career, Massachusetts’s Barney Frank predicts that at least some Republicans will have the courage to join with Democrats in pursuing new gun laws in the wake of the Newtown mass murder.
Frank advocated a handful a reforms, including reinstating the assault weapons ban, and banning large ammunition clips. He also suggested his colleagues take on the loophole that allows gun shows to sell firearms without waiting limits or even background checks in some cases. He said it’s unacceptable that someone could walk into a sale like that and buy a gun with no waiting period, “no matter how mentally and emotionally deranged” that person might be. “It should not be possible anywhere in America to buy a gun without a waiting period,” Frank said.
Rep. Frank argues that the majority of Americans have always been in favor of tougher gun reform laws, but those who were opposed were simply more adamant about their beliefs. The Sandy Hook shootings have awakened the gun-control-favoring majority, giving politicians in Congress the needed cover to get things done. With this new political capital, he thinks, legislators will have “the courage of their convictions.”









