By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD– Gun violence and prescription drug costs were among the topics of a Sunday afternoon news conference at the Springfield home of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)

Durbin, who attended services for a couple of Aurora shooting victims a few days ago, says what’s needed are both new laws and a closer adherence to existing ones.

“It’s happened before. We created a bill with a great name, Fix NICS — NICS is the national registry of people purchasing firearms — and we thought we’d moved in that direction. At least, red flags were flying that people were missing that legal obligation. It clearly isn’t enough. If we don’t close the loopholes, we are going to continue to have firearms in the hands of the wrong people in this country,” he said.

In the days after the Aurora workplace shooting, in which five people were killed, it became clear authorities had missed opportunities to seize the gunman’s weapons.

And Durbin says the nation’s diabetics would appreciate the price of insulin coming down.

“It’s about time we create generic forms of analog insulin,” he said, “so it’s affordable. I have heard too many stories of people who can’t afford it, cut the dosage, and die. Literally die. They just don’t have the money to afford it. We have reached a point in this country where we have to come to grips with the overwhelming cost of prescription drugs.”

Man-made insulin has been around for almost 100 years, and Durbin says there is no need for its manufacturers to become super-rich from it.