Holder To Blumenthal: Obama Administration Remains Committed To Comprehensive Effort To Reduce Gun Violence, Expand Mental Health Access

(Washington, DC) – Today, in response to a question U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) posed at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stated the Obama Administration remains committed to a comprehensive effort to reduce gun violence and expand mental health access. In his response, Holder discussed visiting Newtown in the wake of the December 2012 shooting, and said:

“Our resolve remains the same. My resolve is as firm as it was back then. And I think what we should also understand is that the vast majority of the American people still want those common sense gun safety measures that we advanced last year. Our commitment is real and we will revisit these issues.”

Video of the exchange between Blumenthal and Holder is here, a full transcript is below:

BLUMENTHAL: Let me turn to a part of the president's speech where I might have hoped he had said more on the issue of preventing gun violence. The mention by the president was very brief. But I hope, and I hope you will join me in the view that the president remains completely committed to ending gun violence in this country, adopting common sense sensible measures like background checks and mental health initiatives; a ban on straw purchases and illegal trafficking.

The bill that was before us unfortunately failed to pass, but I'd like your commitment on behalf of the administration that he remains resolutely and steadfastly in support of these initiatives.

HOLDER: Yes, we do still have that commitment. The worst day that I had as attorney general of the United States was the day that I went to Newtown to thank the first responders, crime scene search officers who were there. And they took me on a tour of that – of that school. And if people had the ability – if the American people, legislators, members of Congress, had had the ability to be with me on that day, to walk through those classrooms and see the caked blood, to see the tufts of carpet that I didn't quite understand when I first saw it – the carpet picked up. And then I realized that that was – those were bullets – where bullets had gone through and picked up the carpet. If people had seen the crime scene search pictures of those little angels, I suspect that the outcome of our – that effort that we mounted last year would have been different.

Our resolve remains the same. My resolve is as firm as it was back then. And I think what we should also understand is that the vast majority of the American people still want those common sense gun safety measures that we advanced last year. Our commitment is real and we will revisit these issues.

BLUMENTHAL: And on the subject of the use of the president's authority, my hope is – and I would argue that he take whatever action is possible, as he has done in a number of steps already and as you have done in trying to clarify the mental health issues that have to be reported to the NIC system, my hope is that additional measures, executive actions are contemplated under that authority.

HOLDER: The president – it is his intention to again try to work with Congress, but in the absence of meaningful action to explore all the possibilities and use all the powers that he has to frankly just protect the American people.