(KNZA)--U.S. Senator Jerry Moran addressed a number of topics at a town hall meeting in Hiawatha Tuesday afternoon at American Legion Post #66--including gun control.

In response to a question from an audience member, the Kansas Republican said Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has indicated the Senate will take up gun control legislation when Congress returns next week from its August break.

Among measures mentioned have been expanding background checks and enacting a red flag law, which would permit police, or family members, to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who presents a danger to others or themselves.

Three women at the meeting urged the senator to support what they called “common sense gun control measures” but another audience member told Moran he needs to be very judicious when it comes to the 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding citizens.

Moran said the issue of gun control is challenging. “ ( With) any kind of ban on weapons, there are still weapons. So what you end up with is something in the black market that isn’t any safer. You have to do something that doesn’t mean law abiding citizens give up a right, and people who don’t care about the law still have guns and use them.”

When it comes to the red flag issue, Moran said due process also matters to him. “ We still have a constitution that protects the ownership and possession of firearms. If you can make the case someone is of danger to themselves or others, and you do that in front of a judge to some legal standard, then that type of concept makes sense to me. But it can’t just be a he said, she said, kind of thing over who is a danger to themselves or others.”

One individual at the meeting attributed the increase in mass shootings across the nation to social media and another to a break down in the family unit.

On Wednesday, Moran took part in a conservation tour that included stops in Brown, Doniphan, Atchison and Wyandotte Counties. Moran was joined on the tour by Matthew Lohr, Chief of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.