Governor Steve Bullock is standing by his comments over the weekend that he'd support a ban on some semiautomatic weapons such as the AR-15 rifle.
“When I view an assault weapons ban, it’s sort of a military, semi-automatic, typically removable clips, a magazine of 10 or more - it's like the AR-15s,” he said.
Bullock said in a news conference Tuesday that gun violence should be looked at as a public health crisis and that he wants a conversation on a range of restrictions that would make schoolchildren and communities safer.
“I’m not proposing anything," Bullock said. "What I was asked is, ‘Would you look at restrictions on assault weapons?’ And I think that’s where then it all immediately gets blurred. Absolutely. Let’s actually take a look at this from a public health perspective.”
The two-term Democratic governor first voiced his support for a ban Sunday in answer to a question posed during an interview on CNN.
He says the timing of his announcement has nothing to do with him considering a 2020 presidential run.
Bullock is in between trips to early voting states, after speaking at the Iowa state fair last week and heading to New Hampshire on Friday.