FOXNews.com: Durbin plans to reopen Capitol Hill debate on gun rights

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Durbin plans to reopen Capitol Hill debate on gun rights Dec 16th 2012, 14:54 Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said Sunday he will hold a hearing in the next few weeks on gun rights, ending speculation about whether Washington will resume the national debate on the issue following the deadly mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. "We need to sit down and have a quiet and calm conversation on the Second Amendment," Durbin, the Senate's Majority Whip, told "Fox News Sunday." The senator said the debate has so far been dominated by national gun lobbies "that have agendas." But he thinks the mass shooting Friday in which 26 people – include 20 first-graders – were killed could finally lead to more strict laws on high-capacity ammunition magazines and the semi-automatic weapons like those purportedly used by the shooter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn. "I think what happened might at least lead some to sit down" and talk, Durbin said. Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert agreed that all parties must come together and have an "open-minded" conversation. However, he maintained his position that gun ownership is a constitutional right that protects Americans. "I wish to God (the school principal) had a gun locked up her office" so she could have taken off the shooter's head, Gohmert said on Fox. Durbin also called for a national commission on mass violence, an idea that Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman suggested earlier on the Fox show. Durbin called for the commission to also address the issue of school violence.

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