Even though 30,000 Americans per year are killed by guns and despite running to represent the district containing Newtown, GOP congressional candidate Clay Cope in an interview with the Connecticut Mirror said, “We don’t have a gun problem,” instead suggesting that “[w]e have a terrorist problem.”

“How out of touch can Clay Cope be? It is unconscionable to say this nation does not have a gun problem. He is using the threat of terrorism to distract from the fact that he would vote in lockstep with the NRA and against the wishes of Connecticut voters. Mr. Cope is right in one respect: We do have a terrorism problem. That’s why Congresswoman Esty and the rest of Connecticut congressional delegation have made national security a top priority – an issue on which no one can question their bona fides – and are fighting to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of suspected terrorists, a commonsense bill that Mr. Cope refuses to answer whether he would even support. But we do, unequivocally, have a gun problem.

“Voters of the 5th district, who are all too familiar with gun violence, deserve a representative who will fight for gun reforms to make our communities and our nation safer. Clay Cope has made clear that he will oppose even the truly commonsense legislation to expand background checks for all gun sales. Simply put, he is unfit for office.” – Connecticut Democratic Party spokesman Leigh Appleby