WLS Radio: Quigley: U.S. should fo more to regulate guns

This article was published on October 3, 2017. A link to the article can be found here.

By John Dempsey

Chicago Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley says the Las Vegas shooting rampage is more proof that the United States should do more to regulate guns. Quigley told
"The Big John and Ramblin' Ray Show" on WLS that the deaths of at least 59 people and the wounding of 527 more, is a reminder that the right to own a gun is not unlimited.

"The Supreme Court ruled a few years ago in Chicago's gun case that there is a second amendment right, but it did put limitations like all amendments have limitations, like the first amendment has some limitations, and that is, not everyone should be able to get a gun and they shouldn't be able to get any kind of gun they want and have a gun anywhere they want. That was hit upon me when I went to watch the argument in the Supreme Court I had to go through two metal detectors. We just have to address the fact that this isn't an unlimited right."

The gunman was identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada. He had checked into the hotel room on Thursday, authorities said. Police said he was a retiree with no criminal record in the Nevada county where he lived.

No one knows yet what caused Paddock to inflict such mass tragedy. But based on what authorities have found, he may have been planning something even worse.

In the gunman's 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, police recovered 23 weapons, including a handgun and multiple rifles — some with scopes on them.

In his car, authorities also found several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a material used to make explosives. And at Paddock's home in Mesquite, Nevada, police found at least 19 firearms, explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition.

Congressman Quigley says these findings are troubling.

"It is a statistical fact that we are way ahead on gun violence than the rest of the world. The point is regardless we still have to begin to address it. Just to say, ‘Well there's nothing you can do', it doesn't really help the situation. The fact of the matter is, we at least can try to mitigate this as we've tried to mitigate all disasters."