Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Thursday that President Donald Trump's suggestion to "take the guns first, go through due process second," in the case of potentially dangerous individuals, took "my breath away."
Trump said Wednesday during a bipartisan meeting on school safety and gun violence: "I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man's case that just took place in Florida ... to go to court would have taken a long time. . . take the guns first, go through due process second."
"I have to admit that the idea of taking a person's property before the due process — that did take my breath away a little bit," Toomey told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"Doesn't work that way in America."
He added that people might want to take Trump's words "seriously, not necessarily literally."
"Look, I think there's an old saying about this president, which is take him seriously, not necessarily literally," Toomey said.
"And I think the big takeaway from this meeting is he wants to get something done. Broadening background checks would be the centerpiece of it, and we ought to consider a whole range of other items. I agree with that."
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