Rep. Deutch on Gun Control: Stop Production of 'Weapons of War'

Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said that the U.S. should stop producing assault weapons.

"I think what’s important is to stop the production of weapons of war that don’t belong on our streets," Deutch said Friday on CNN’s "Newsroom."

"Let’s treat these assault weapons the same way we treat machine guns. That ought to be something that everyone can get behind. No more manufacturing (of assault weapons). Let’s get them out of the communities," Deutch said in the interview.

Deutch noted the ban on "Tommy guns" after the Valentine’s Day Massacre gang killings in Chicago in 1929. "No one has questioned that decision," Deutch said.

Those killings led to the National Firearms Act of 1934, which was intended to keep "Tommy guns" out of private hands, The New York Times reported.

"Now it was another massacre here in Parkland that should prompt Congress to say we can’t have all these assault weapons on our streets," the congressman said.

Another Democratic congressman, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said the U.S. should buy back military-style semiautomatic assault weapons. "We can finally act to remove weapons designed for war from our streets, once and for all," Swalwell wrote Thursday in a USA Today opinion piece.  

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