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DENVER \u2013 Colorado Republican U.S. Senate candidates say now is not the time to discuss gun control, despite the recent mass shooting in Orlando.<\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet<\/a>, the Democrat the Republican candidates hope to unseat this November, joined a Democratic-led filibuster last week in the Republican-controlled Senate, where he spoke of a need to close loopholes associated with purchasing weapons.<\/p>\n The debate revolves around the early Sunday morning Orlando massacre, where 49 people were killed in a nightclub by a gunman who had been investigated by the FBI. The weapons carried by the gunman were legally purchased.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there anybody who is going to come to the floor of the United States Senate and say that Colorado is worse off because we\u2019ve kept guns out of the hands of murderers, or kidnappers, or rapists,\u201d said Bennet, referring to universal background checks in Colorado.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t mythical. This is the actual fact of what\u2019s going on in a Western state that has background checks. Nobody here can come here and argue that we\u2019re not safer because these people who shouldn\u2019t have a gun don\u2019t have a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n The nearly 15-hour filibuster ended early Thursday after Republicans agreed to allow votes on two proposed gun control measures.<\/p>\n Votes would be held on whether to ban people on the government\u2019s terrorist watch list from obtaining gun licenses and whether to expand background checks to gun shows and internet sales.<\/p>\n But Republican U.S. Senate candidates don\u2019t believe the recent incident is cause for a conversation over extended gun restrictions.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not what we should be talking about right now,\u201d said former state Rep. Jon Keyser of Morrison. \u201cWe should not be talking about gun control, because guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens make this country safer. To people who are saying that we need more laws, or more rules, I guess I would just respond with Paris, Brussels \u2013 these are places where it\u2019s very difficult to get weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened in Orlando this weekend was horrific but lawmakers shouldn\u2019t consider new gun restrictions in a knee-jerk reaction to this tragic event,\u201d added former Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier<\/a>. \u201cEnacting new, more restrictive gun legislation isn\u2019t the answer to preventing these tragedies. We must address the problems with our current laws and system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Democrats use every tragic event out there to go after the Second Amendment rights that are God-given rights, and those rights should not be infringed upon,\u201d opined El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former Colorado State University athletic director Jack Graham<\/a> said Democrats \u2013 especially President Barack Obama \u2013 are too afraid to address \u201cradical Islamic terrorists\u201d in the wake of the most recent terror event.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Obama \u2026 continues to be unwilling to say the words \u2018radical Islamic terrorists,\u2019 or \u2018Islamic jihadists.\u2019 I disagree with him firmly,\u201d Graham said. \u201cThat\u2019s what they are, they are radical Islamic terrorists, they are Islamic jihadists.\u201d<\/p>\n The Orlando incident appears to have been tied to homegrown terrorism, as the 29-year-old shooter was born in New York. While he pledged allegiance to foreign terrorist groups, a direct connection between the shooter and those groups has not been confirmed.<\/p>\n