Fox’s Shannon Bream Puts GOP Senator Mike Lee on the Run for His Opposition to Gun Reform: ‘Out of Step With Your Constituents?’

Fox News’ Shannon Bream pressed Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on whether he’s going against public support by opposing gun reforms in the wake of the country’s recent mass shootings.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Lee he defended gun ownership while scoffing at the deal a bipartisan group of senators reached last week on gun safety reforms, which has come under criticism by extremists on both sides. As Lee warned against the idea of restricting gun-ownership among law-abiding Americans, Bream invoked a recent Fox News poll showing that most Americans believe tougher laws would reduce shootings.

Bream ran through various findings of the poll — noting the overwhelming levels of support for safety measures like background checks on guns and ammo, stronger enforcement of laws, and raising the legal age for owning an assault rifle from 18 to 21. Fox’s poll also found that 63 percent of people support banning assault weapons.

“There is a lot of momentum, at least among the public sphere, for doing this,” Bream said. “Are you out of step with your constituents?”

Lee meandered around the question — replying, “what’s important is that we look out for the rights of constituents.” He also made a long-winded argument that polling questions are too nebulous on issues like assault weapons, so they don’t equate to “questions about specific language within legislative text” that lawmakers have to deal with.

It’s the job of the lawmaker to look at for the interest and the rights of the law-abiding citizens they represent. Each of those provisions — I understand how they can get high popularity readings when they don’t define them. For example, you talk about banning assault weapons. There is no universal definition of what an assault weapon is. Very often, the true distinction really depends on whether the stock pieces of the gun are made with wood, or of plastic, or of composite. So that text does matter here, because it is that text that will determine whether we are intruding unduly on the rights of the American law-abiding citizen, in doing so in a way that would actually deter violent criminal behavior.

Watch above, via Fox News Sunday.