Sen. John Kennedy rips Dems' push for gun control after deadly supermarket attack: 'You don't stop drunk drivers by getting rid of all sober drivers'

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) put Democrats' call for gun control on blast following the supermarket mass killing in Boulder, Colorado.

Authorities arrested accused mass killer Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, and charged him with 10 counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deadly attack in King Sooper's grocery store on Monday.

What are the details?

On Tuesday, Kennedy said that Democrats' push for gun control after the devastating mass killing is entirely asinine.

"These killings were terrible," Kennedy said on Tuesday's broadcast of "Fox & Friends."

"They were horrible," he added. "I'm reminded though, that, you know, America is a big country, we're free. And one of the prices we pay for that freedom is that you're always going to have some people who abuse it. Freedom is risk. What we've got to concentrate on is how to control that risk; you're not going to stop the killings until you stop the killers."

Kennedy pointed out that there are ways to stop mass killings — but enacting stricter gun control is not the way.

"You don't stop drunk drivers by getting rid of all sober drivers," he added, "which is what many of my Democratic friends want to do with respect to the Second Amendment. In my judgment, we do not need more gun control. We need more idiot control. How do we do that? We've already tried, the Republicans have, Sen. Grassley, Sen. Cruz had a bill to strengthen our national database. We regulate gun ownership in America. If you're convicted of certain crimes, if you have a tendency to violence, if you're mentally ill, and you want to buy a gun, your name has to be run through a database."

“The problem," he continued, "is that the database has huge holes in it. And many federal agencies and state agencies are very cavalier about sending in the names. Grassley and Cruz's bill, which I support, would have tightened up the database and it would have cracked down on people who have guns who shouldn't have guns. You know why the bill didn't pass? Many of my Democratic colleagues filibustered it."

Sen. Kennedy: We don't need more gun control, we need more idiot controlwww.youtube.com

Anything else?

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called for a national assault weapons ban.

"I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take commonsense steps that will save lives in the future," Biden said. "We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed, it was the law for the longest time and it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), however, offered Democrats the opportunity to support legislation he said would hamper the ability of violent criminals to procure guns, all while protecting responsible, gun-owning Americans' Second Amendment rights.

"Every time there's a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders," Cruz said Tuesday, pointing to legislation he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced: the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act.

"Grassley-Cruz, targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms, to put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns," Cruz said.

"What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens because that's their political objective. But what they propose, not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse. The jurisdictions in this country with the strictest gun control have among the highest rates of crime and murder. When you disarm law-abiding citizens, you make them more likely to be victims. If you want to stop these murders, go after the murderers."

As previously reported by Blaze Media:

Cruz [was] referring to the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act, a bill that he previously co-sponsored and introduced to the Senate with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). The legislation would strengthen requirements for federal agencies to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), so felons and other violent criminals attempting to purchase firearms illegally would be flagged by the background check system.

It would also fund additional prosecution of gun-law violations by the Department of Justice and create a gun violence task force to stop felons and fugitives from purchasing firearms.

The Grassley-Cruz bill was first introduced as an amendment in 2013, when it received a positive vote of 52-48, with nine Democratic senators joining Republicans in support of the bill. However, some Democrats filibustered the legislation, lifting the benchmark to pass to 60 votes, which killed the bill.