Missouri state Senate candidate Eric Schmitt says he would vote "no" on a bill in the House that would ban sales of guns to minors and ban large capacity magazines.
"I think it's the wrong appraoch," Schmitt told KMOX's Kevin Killeen. "I think we oughta be focusing on prosecuting violent criminals, I think we oughta make sure our schools are safe."
Killeen asked Schmitt how the Founding Fathers would feel about the situation with guns today, and how they would react to school shootings.
"I think they understood human nature and they understood that people -- when there is a crisis, or when people feel like they can use a crisis to their advantage, to go to the thing that they always go to, which is gun control," Schmitt said."
He added that he believes military-grad assault rifles are essential for people to access so they can "defend themselves and their property from criminals" and the government.
He said the effort to limit access to guns is an overreach of the government.
"Look at any tyrannical regime across the world. What's the first thing they try to do? They try to disarm their citizenry," he said. "So the Second Amendment plays a very important role in protecting our families and protecting our god-given rights."
According to a study from Pew Research Center, in 2021, slightly more than half of Americans favored stricter gun laws.