Watch: Bratton Says Pro-Gun Republicans 'Prostitute Themselves in Front of the NRA'

New York, NY — In an interview Tuesday morning exploring how another mass murder like the one Sunday in an Orlando gay club could be avoided, the head of the New York City Police Department, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, said that as long as Republican politicians continue to block stricter gun-control bills, counter-terrorism officers face an uphill battle.

A host on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show asked Bratton:

"On December 3, [2015], the day after the San Bernardino massacre, 54 members of the United States Senate voted against a bill that would have allowed people on the terror watch list to be prohibited from purchasing a gun. That bill was defeated. What goes through your mind as someone who deals daily with the threat of guns on the street, twinned with potential terror on the streets, when you see the United States Senate neglect to do its duty?"

Bratton then became visibly upset on the live TV show.

"Shame on them," he said. "Shame on them that they are totally beholden."

"They prostitute themselves in front of the NRA," Bratton continued. "They put the interests of their own political careers and that of the NRA ahead of the American people."

Another of the show's hosts also asked Bratton: "At the end of the day, no matter what we do, aren't we always going to have this problem of perhaps one or two or three individuals who, however it happens, become radicalized?"

Bratton answered that while New York City is bolstered with counter-terrorism forces on both the city and federal level, some areas of the U.S. aren't as equipped.

"The individual responsible for this murder here [was] interviewed by the FBI two, three times several years ago, and [was] deemed at that time not to be a person who would warrant full-time surveillance going forward," Bratton said. "What triggered now, two years later, the actions that he is responsible for?

"That's the issue," he said. "We have limited resources to work with. The Bureau is stretched very thin."

"Surveillance, for example, on one individual can take upwards of 18 to 24 officers a day," Bratton said. "Surveillance on one individual. And if you're dealing with hundreds, who has that type of manpower [and] resources to be able to do that kind of full surveillance?"

Watch the full interview above or on the MSNBC website.