SALT LAKE CITY - The mother of a 15-year-old girl killed in the 2007 shooting at Trolley Square is calling for universal background checks on gun sales.
Carolyn Tuft lost her daughter Kirsten, who would be 21 years old now, and nearly lost her own life. Carolyn was shot three times that day, and she still lives with buckshot in her body.
"It's always in the back of my head. I think about her every day," Tuft said.
Carolyn Tuft says universal background checks are a "no-brainer," and she took her message to Washington last year, meeting with U.S. Sen. Mike Lee. But she says nothing came from that meeting.
"He just said he was sorry and he liked guns and he felt there was no need for change," Tuft told FOX 13 on Thursday.
Sen. Lee opposes a measure to require universal background checks and stricter gun control laws. He says those regulations wouldn't make a difference.
"Laws like those being proposed right now are not going to change those who are bent on committing acts of violence. So what I'm worried about is protecting the rights of law-abiding American citizens," Lee said.
On Thursday, Lee voted against a measure that would allow the debate in the U.S. Senate. He was joined by 28 other Republican senators, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, and two Democrats voting against the measure. It passed, 61 in favor, 31 against.
Meanwhile, Tuft has settled a civil lawsuit with the pawn shop that sold a shotgun to Sulejman Talovic, the suspect in the Feb. 2007 Trolley Square shooting. Details of that settlement are confidential.
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