Sen. Kyrsten Sinema deflects question on lifting the filibuster for a gun control vote, promising instead to 'start having conversations' with Republicans

• Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is holding onto her position in favor of the Senate filibuster.
• She would not commit to lifting it when asked by a reporter if she'd be open to the possibility.

Despite pressure mounting from Democratic colleagues for Congressional action on gun control, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona would not commit to setting aside the filibuster for a vote.

Instead, Sinema said on Wednesday that she's hoping to revive a dialogue with GOP colleagues over a solution to mass shootings, starting with "an opportunity for us to actually have real conversations and try to do something."

Sinema made the rare comments outside the Senate chamber, with Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News tweeting out her quotes.

—Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 25, 2022

The Arizona senator said that "despite the fact that there is always heated rhetoric in DC," she remains confident in her GOP colleagues to join Democrats.

Major gun control legislation has generally been dead on arrival in Congress in the 10 years after the Sandy Hook mass shooting in Connecticut, which left 20 children and seven adults dead.

The only exception came after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, where a gunman killed 58 people during a country music concert. However, rather than Congress acting, the Department of Justice under former President Donald Trump banned bump stocks, a device used in the massacre allowing semi-automatic weapons to shoot as fast as a machine gun.

Sherman added that Sinema told reporter she doesn't think "DC solutions are realistic here" in her gaggle.