Senators react to recent school shooting

Six people were killed at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building containing about 200 students, police said. On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Democratic Senators whose home states have been affected by mass shootings responded to the tragedy. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, whose state was home to the Highland Park shooting last July, said the issue of mass shooting is uniquely American. “This is uniquely American, and the people of this country have to ask themselves a basic question: Had enough? Had enough for sending your children and grandchildren to school and wondering if they're going to be victims of assault rifles? I mean, this is madness. To think that some people rationalize this as part of the Second Amendment is beyond me. I can't believe our founding fathers would make America sign a suicide pact,” Durbin said. Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT., whose state saw the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 which killed 27, said it’s time for a national ban on assault weapons. “The carnage, the mass murder, the killings must be stopped. And we know the answer: the ban on assault weapons in Connecticut shows that these measures work. Inaction won't work for America anymore,” Blumenthal said. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, echoed what the majority of his party has been saying about furthering security in schools across the country. One bullet in the hands of a mentally disturbed person or crook is one too many. A bullet in the hands of people trying to defend their lives and property, I don't care what the magazine holds the goal is to get guns out of the hands of people that are mentally unstable or criminals, so," Graham said.