O’Malley: California shooting shows need for stronger gun regulation

DES MOINES - In the wake of yet another mass shooting, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley is calling for stronger gun regulations.

Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people at an event for his co-workers Wednesday in California and later died in a gunbattle with police.

O'Malley, one of three Democrats running for president, said during a phone interview Friday that the incident reinforces the need for stricter gun control laws. Reports indicate the guns used in the attack were purchased legally, and Malik recently professed on social media her support to the Middle East terrorist group that calls itself the Islamic State.

O'Malley said the California shooting is similar to other recent mass shootings in that it shows that it is too easy for potentially dangerous individuals to buy guns in the United States. He said he thinks there should be a ban on the sale of 'assault combat weapons” and armor-piercing bullets, both of which were used in the California shooting.

'These things are related, they are connected, and there are actions we can take,” said O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland. 'We're the only developed nation on the planet where it is so easy to purchase combat weapons.”

O'Malley also has proposed actions the president can take on gun control without congressional approval, including issuing and enforcing federal gun safety regulations, increasing communication between federal and local law enforcement about people convicted of domestic assault and other violent crimes, and instructing the Justice Department to stop enforcing a 2005 law that protects gun dealers from lawsuits.

The other Democrats running for president also have called for stronger gun control laws. Hillary Clinton chided Republican senators this week for voting against legislation that would have prohibited individuals on the government's terror watch list from buying guns, and Sen. Bernie Sanders this week called for an assault weapons ban.

'We've got to wake up. We've got to act like Americans. We have to realize this is not acceptable,” O'Malley said. 'We can do these things without infringing on anybody's right to renew their hunting permit.”