Klobuchar emphasizes mental health, gun control after shootings

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said she supports reauthorizing an assault weapons ban, but limiting the use of assault-style weapons and large ammunition magazines won't be enough to stop mass shootings like the one earlier this month in Newtown, Conn.

While appearing on "This Week" on ABC on Sunday morning, Klobuchar said legislators should strengthen laws mandating background checks for people buying guns. And, citing the workplace shooting at a Minneapolis printing business in late September, Klobuchar said there should be a greater emphasis on mental health screenings.

"We had a shooting in Minnesota, small business, six people gunned down with an employee that clearly had a mental illness," she said, referring to the rampage at Accent Signage, in which the shooter "should not have had access to those guns."

She continued: "That's what we're talking about here, is looking at making sure we go after what seems to be the common thread through these mass shootings. But I also understand in my state, which is a state that loves our hunting and fishing, that we have to do this in a way that isn't going to take the guns out of the hands of our hunters -- out of the hands of my uncle and his deer stand. And I don't think that's going to happen if we look at these common-sense solutions."

Klobuchar said any new gun control measures would have to preserve hunters' rights to firearms. She and fellow DFL Sen. Al Franken sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is likely to hold hearings on gun violence as early as January.

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