On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) argued Congress “is in the thrall of the NRA” and “The opponents of actually doing the things that we could do, that every other country has done, to reduce gun violence,” rely on how difficult passing such laws are and distractions to avoid doing things “any person with a heart, any person with a soul would say” Congress should do.

Himes said that “not a damn thing” has been done by Congress to deal with mass shootings since Sandy Hook. He continued, “This institution is not going to move. Think about, as you said, 20 dead babies in Connecticut, wasn’t enough to move the heart of this place. The — we all learned about something called a bump stock after the Las Vegas shootings. This institution, the United States Congress, couldn’t even muster the strength or the political will to pass a law against bump stocks, something that serves no purpose other than to turn a semiautomatic weapon into an automatic weapon of death, as we saw exhibited in Las Vegas. You know, this place is in the thrall of the NRA. It’s in the thrall of the idea — it’s a very confusing thing. Is it bump stocks? Is it mental health? Is it universal background checks? The opponents of actually doing the things that we could do, that every other country has done, to reduce gun violence, rely on how challenging it is and how easy it is to distract people at times like this, to avoid doing something that, any — in my opinion, any person with a heart, any person with a soul would say that this institution should do something to try to prevent what happened today, what will certainly happen tomorrow, and what we will continue to live with, until we finally decide to do something about it.”

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