Dem Sen. Jones: Assault Weapons Ban Not Feasible Right Now

Sen. Doug Jones told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that he does not support an assault weapons ban.

Asked by host George Stephanopoulos if he backs such a proposal by his Democratic colleague Mark Warner, the Alabama senator said he doesn't believe "that a gun ban is feasible right now."

Instead, he said, "We've got to get done what I think can be done right now. Let's reach across and within our own party to do those things that we can do, and that to me is where I want to focus."

Jones stressed that "in order to legislate, in order to do things and get things done, you've got to put some of the far-right, the far-left rhetoric aside."

He continued that "The fact is that the NRA does represent a lot of millions of Americans who are concerned about that infringement on their Second Amendment. At the same time, those Parkland students and the other millions of kids around the country also represent a point of view that we have to do something, not just about school safety, but about gun violence and trying to stem the tide of gun deaths in this country."

When asked what could be done, Jones said "We can do more on background checks. I'd still like to see the age limit for pistols, which has been 21 for many years, expanded to include all semi-automatic weapons."

Jones boosted Democratic hopes when he won an upset victory in a special Senate election in December in his heavily Republican state.

When asked what message he has for his party as midterm elections approach, the Alabama senator said, "I think the message that I had in my race, and I think Conor Lamb had in his race [in Pennsylvania], I think Gov. Northam had in Virginia, is that you have to talk directly to people, and you have to talk about issues that mean very much to them on a daily basis."

He emphasized that "It's not just talking, you have to listen. I think that has been one of the biggest problems that the Democrats have had over the years is that there's a perception that we just don't hear, that we do the things that we want to do and we don't hear and we don't listen."

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