Gun store owner weighs in on bipartisan gun deal

(NewsNation) — Russell Stuart, the owner of Beverly Hills Guns, joined “NewsNation Prime” on Sunday to offer his thoughts on the bipartisan gun violence framework reached in the Senate.

“I hope so,” he said, when asked whether he thought the new proposal could help tackle America’s gun violence problems.

But he also emphasized the need to look at mental health to address America’s mass shooting epidemic.

“It’s a mental health issue,” he said. “And until we can actually bring people … together — hospitals, parents, schools, churches, community — to get these people the help that they need and to identify the people who are criminally not well, that’s the way that you can help the gun industry figure out who not to give that gun to. And that’s how the background checks can actually work and be more effective.”

Stuart also took aim at social media companies.

“The accountability of the social media companies has to (be) at the forefront. These people are telegraphing almost every single crime that they commit, sometimes weeks, months, and even years in advance,” Stuart said. “So when these companies know that someone’s going to post online that they want to shoot up their school or even hurt themselves, these companies need to have a responsibility to reach out to law enforcement, and reach out to these people’s community so we can figure this out.”

He warned that gun sellers sometimes lack the information needed to know who is truly dangerous.

“It cannot just be on the gun store. All they do is run the background check and get the information back that the government sends. If the government sends nothing, then they give up the gun,” Stuart concluded. “And then they find out later that this kid or you know someone had written all of these nasty things online and these social media companies need to be a part of the solution because it cannot just be the gun industry.”