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Bloomberg talks guns after Isla Vista shooting: ‘We don’t want to end the Second Amendment’

Stricter gun control is needed to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, criminals and children, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday on “Meet the Press.”

“I don’t know what you were like in college, but my recollection of college 50 years ago is that kids just should not have guns on campus,” said Bloomberg, who has long been an advocate for more gun control.

Bloomberg, who launched a gun-control lobbying organization called Everytown in April, spoke publicly Sunday for the first time since Elliot Rodger killed six people and wounded 13 others in a shooting spree near UC Santa Barbara in Isla Vista, California. Bloomberg plans to spend $50 million of his own money to challenge the NRA.

“I want to make sure the public gets together, tell the Congress and their state legislatures, ‘We want reasonable background checks.’ We don’t want to end the Second Amendment, this is nothing to do about gun control.”

Bloomberg said he recommended that all elected officials “watch the video [of Isla Vista shooting victim Christopher Michael-Martinez’s father, Richard Martinez] of this father the other day saying ‘no more.'”