Cue the Debate on Gun Control

The Dark Knight massacre ripped through the Sunday talk shows today, echoing the resurgent national conversation about gun control in the wake of the tragedy. The players and their thoughts, as per Politico:

• Colo. Gov. John Hickenlooper: “This guy is a terrorist. He wasn’t a terrorist in the sense of politics, but for whatever twisted reasons that we can barely even imagine, he wanted to create terror, he wanted to put fear in people’s lives... How do we preserve our freedoms, and all those things that define this country and yet try and prevent something like this from happening? There is no easy answer."
• Michael Bloomberg: “The NRA is adamant about no controls on weapons, in spite of federal laws that say you cannot sell guns to minors, to people with psychiatric problems or drug problems, or convicted felons. And yet they pressure Congress and the White House, and they've been doing it for decades, to not fund enforcement of those laws. We don't need more laws, we need a couple of fixes... Ask (President Obama and Mitt Romney) why they are unwilling" to enforce restrictions.

• Dianne Feinstein: "I would hope that there would be a sane national conversation on guns. President Obama, Mr. Romney, I think they should give (the now-expired 1994 ban on assault weapons) a lot of consideration." Further, renewing the ban is "a lot tougher now, because the gun organizations have become so strong."
• John McCain: “I think people would be glad to have a conversation, but to somehow leap to the conclusion this was somehow caused by the fact we don’t have more gun control legislation, I don’t think has been proved.”
• Rep. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.: "If somebody—a responsible individual—had been carrying a weapon, maybe maybe they could have prevented some of those deaths, some of those injuries, and that's just the truth."
• Rep. Carolyn Macarthy, D-NY (whose husband died in a mass shooting): "I've talked to an awful lot of police officers, commissioners of police, they say it's the worst scenario you can possibly think of. Can you imagine in that theater, smoke, it's dark, and everybody starts shooting? I think the massacre would have been a lot worse."

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)