Paying a visit to Colorado Thursday, the head of the National Rifle Association met with state leaders in Colorado.
鈥淲e鈥檙e willing to talk and willing to be a constructive part of any conversation that鈥檚 designed to protect our children,鈥� said NRA President David Keene.
Keene met separately with Democratic statehouse leaders and Governor John Hickenlooper. He says the discussions went well and that there鈥檚 a lot of common ground. Keene supports tightening, but not expanding, the current background check system to make sure mentally ill people can鈥檛 get guns.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not interested in stigmatizing people who鈥檝e had a bad day or went to a doctor because of mild depression but there are people that are not in the gray area.鈥�
There is a wide divide on other issues though.
Democrats unveiled a package of , pushing for universal background checks on gun purchases and a limit on high capacity magazines. Democratic Senate President John Morse is also proposing a bill that would make manufacturers and sellers of assault weapons liable for shootings.
鈥淭hey make killing machines, machines that are designed for nothing else but killing and they have absolute immunity and no-one else has that,鈥� said Morse.
Morse鈥檚 idea has legal challenges because it would violate a federal law already on the books. Even though Democrats control both legislative chambers he鈥檚 not sure how united Democrats will be on the various gun proposals.
Morse says universal background checks have a strong chance of passing. Those very background check proposals are something Governor Hickenlooper also supports. A new nationwide Quinnipiac poll also finds that , 7 percent oppose them.
