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Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) on Sunday said that he opposed a bill to close the so-called gun show loophole and expand background checks to Internet gun sales because only better mental health laws will ensure that the Newtown mass shooting victims "did not die in vain."

"In my meeting with the Sandy Hook families, they told me that -- and of course, who wouldn't have sympathy and empathy for these people who have suffered a terrible loss -- but what they told me is that they wanted to make sure their loved one did not die in vain, that something good would come out of this," Cornyn told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "And so I think -- that's why I'm focused like a laser on the mental health component."

"But forgive me, sir," Wallace interrupted. "They are focused on tougher gun control. Specifically, the background check."

"Well for example, [Newtown shooter] Adam Lanza stole his mother's guns," Cornyn explained. "A background check would not have stopped that problem, that incident. A background check should have stopped James Holmes in Tucson, it should have stopped the Virginia Tech shooter."

"In other words, I think the mental health issue is the common element that we ought to be focused on, and I think we can do some good things," the Texas Republican added. "But I'm not for symbolism over substance. I think we can't just pat ourselves on the back and say we're going to pass some enhanced penalties for trafficking or other issues or background checks when they don't really go to solve the problems that cause these terrible tragedies."

Cornyn pointed out that the bipartisan legislation proposed by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) would not have prevented any of the four most recent mass shootings.

"The [Newtown] parents say that doesn't matter," Wallace noted.

"Well, what matters to me is that we not just engage in a symbolic act and pat ourselves on the back and say we've done something good and left the problem unsolved," Cornyn insisted. "I would like to try to solve the problem by focusing on the common element of these recent tragedies, which is the mental health issue."

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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says that AR-15 military-style rifles should not be banned and that it is just "lovely propaganda" to call them "assault weapons."

Following the introduction on Thursday of Sen. Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) bill to ban assault weapons, CNN host Piers Morgan reminded Gingrich that Aurora shooter James Holmes used an AR-15 that could fire 100 bullets in a minute and it was legal under current law.

"How many more bullets do you need to fire, Mr. Speaker, before that qualifies as a dangerous killing machine by your criteria?" Morgan wondered.

"Well, by my criteria, and this goes back to the question of what you respect, Piers," Gingrich asserted. "I think the Second Amendment really matters."

"I put it to you that an AR-15 military-style assault weapon was used in the last five mass shootings," Morgan pointed out.

"It's not a military-style assault weapon," Gingrich insisted. "Look, this is a lovely propaganda."

"What else do you call then?" Morgan pressed. "A machine that can fire 100 bullets in a minute. What else do you call it?"

"I would simply say to you that millions of people, by your own definition, own an AR-15," the Georgia Republican explained. "They're law-abiding. They think it is their right under our Constitution to own it, and don't kid the rest of us."

"[T]he reason you find so many of us, and by the way, it's a substantial majority -- I think the last time I saw, 63 percent of the American people agree that the Second Amendment is actually there to protect us from tyranny," Gingrich continued. "The reason you find so many of us very reluctant to go down this road is we believe each step down this road leads to the next step and the next step and the next step."

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says there is no proof that gun control leads to less gun violence, but he is willing to "look at everything" following a massacre in Aurora, Colorado that left least 12 dead and 58 wounded.

"I don't know, to tell you the truth, what we can do, and this immediately leads to the issue of gun control," McCain told CNN's Candy Crowley. "The killer in Norway, which is a country that has very strict gun control laws, and yet he was still able to acquire the necessary means to initiate and carry out a mass slaughter."

"I think we need to look at everything, if that even should be looked at, but to think that somehow gun control is -- or increased gun control -- is the answer, in my view, that would have to be proved," he added.

Crowley noted that James Holmes, the suspected Colorado shooter, had, over short period of time, purchased an arsenal of weapons and equipment, including an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle with a 100-round magazine, two Glock handguns, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and various types of body armor.

"You get to this point, you don't want the government spying on what people are buying," she explained. "On the other hand, what's the price? The price is all these things we just read off."

"Let's remember it's a constitutional right," McCain replied. "Second of all, if you could prove the case that it, indeed, has a positive effect -- we had a ban on assault weapons that expired some years ago, it didn't change the situation at all in my view."

"So, I think the strongest Second Amendment rights people would be glad to have an conversation, but the conclusion that this was somehow caused by the fact that we don't have more gun control legislation, I don't think has been proved."

According to a 1997 study (PDF) published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the U.S. had a firearm homicide rate 23 times higher than Norway, which McCain cited in his remarks.

More recent 2009 data showed that the U.S. had a firearm homicide rate that was about 15 times higher than "populous, high-income countries," and 10 times higher than the "western countries" belonging to NATO.

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) says that there is no doubt in his mind that last week's shooting at a theater in Aurora was an example of domestic terrorism.

"You know, in a funny way this guy is a terrorist," Hickenlooper said of James Holmes, the man who is suspected of killing at least 12 and wounding 58 others.

"He wasn't a terrorist in the sense of politics, but for whatever twisted reasons we can barely even imagine, he wanted to create terror. He wanted to put fear in people's lives."

But the governor told CNN's Candy Crowley that he couldn't think of "any way in a free society" to have determined that the shooter was amassing an arsenal, which included an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle with a 100-round magazine, two Glock handguns, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and various types of body armor.

"He was buying things in different places," he explained. "Certainly we can try -- and I'm sure we will try -- to create some checks and balances on these things. But this is a case of evil, right? Of somebody who was an aberration of nature and, you know, if it wasn't one weapon it would have been another. I mean, he was diabolical."

"What I hear from you is that you would be open to people who want to suggest a gun law or something that might prevent this sort of thing, but at the moment you can't imagine what that would be?" Crowley asked.

"I'm happy to look at anything," Hickenlooper agreed. "Again, this person -- if there were no assault weapons, there were no this or no that, this guy's going to find something, right? He's going to know how to create a bomb, he's -- I mean, who knows where his mind would have gone."

In Sunday's comments, the Colorado governor seemed to be backing away from a statement he made as Denver mayor in 2008 when he promised to consider tougher gun laws.

"Hickenlooper will look at Denver's gun laws to ensure they are as effective as they can be in keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals and young people," The Denver Post reported at the time.

"Let me be clear: This community will not accept violence — not a day of it, not a week of it, not a month of it — and certainly not a summer of it," he said following a series of shootings in Denver. "There are a number of other cities addressing gun laws. .... We want to look at the matrix of our existing laws and see if some of these other laws are able to help."