Phil Gingrey

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) is a staunch conservative. He has an “A” rating from the NRA and received the group’s endorsement in his last run for office.

But after the tragic events of Sandy Hook, even Gingrey is rethinking his views. In an interview with the Marietta Daily Journal, Gingrey talked about how he might be open to regulating high-capacity magazines and tougher background checks for those who buy guns:

ai???There are some problems, and maybe these huge magazines even for someone who says, ai???look, I just use an AR-15 for target practice,ai??i?? but do you really need to be standing there shooting at a silhouette a shot a second or even quicker with that kind of weapon? For what purpose?ai??? Gingrey asked. ai???I would be willing to listen to the possibility of the capacity of a magazine.ai??? […]Ai??ai???What it is basically, if you go to a gun show and thereai??i??s somebody out there in the parking lot, and theyai??i??re getting out of their car, and theyai??i??ve got an A-15 on their shoulder or ai??i??. John Q. Public wants to sell a handgun or whatever, then thereai??i??s no background check,ai??? Gingrey said. ai???You know, youai??i??re buying a used weapon from somebody and then basically no background check.ai??? […]Ai??With the sophistication of smartphone technology, there should be an application that allows someone selling a gun to run a background check with relative ease, he said.

Gingrey referenced the man responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, describing how he was judged by a psychiatrist to be a danger to himself and ordered to undergo outpatient treatment. Ai??ai???But because it wasnai??i??t in-patient, it was not required to put his name in a databank,ai??? Gingrey said. ai???Well, I think in the state of Georgia the law is identical. We ought to fix that.ai???

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