A week after Dianne Feinstein pulled out all the stops for her brand spanking new gun ban, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is signaling a reluctance to back the ban.
Via CNN
President Barack Obama on Monday reiterated his call for a comprehensive package of steps against gun violence as the focus on possible Senate legislation appeared to narrow to expanded background checks and limited ammunition magazines, rather than a ban on semi-automatic rifles that mimic assault weapons.
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He added, “if there’s one life we can save, we’ve got an obligation to try.”
Obama emphasized his support for banning semi-automatic rifles modeled after military weapons as part of an updated version of an earlier weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Opponents led by the influential National Rifle Association, oppose any ban on weapons, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated that such a provision faced an uphill struggle.
Reid told ABC on Sunday that he backed expanding background checks to private gun sales at shows and other steps, but he refused to endorse a ban on what are called assault-style rifles modeled after military weapons.
When the 1994 assault weapons ban (which Senator Reid opposed) expired in 2004 there was zero evidence that the ban had done anything to curb gun related deaths. The fact that a previous weapons ban was entirely ineffective doesn’t deter politicians like Dianne Feinstein and Barack Obama who view guns as things too dangerous for the average civilian to have. This doesn’t mean that the gun ban Senator Feinstein is proposing won’t take effect, but without Reid’s vocal support the ban likely won’t see the light of day.
What Senator Reid does support is universal background checks on all gun sales. That is already in effect when you buy a gun from a gun store, this would be expanded when you sell a gun privately, this is already in effect in some states. A background check on all gun sales is a common sense solution to helping cut down on straw buyers, the folks who buy guns legally and then sell them to people who would otherwise not qualify for a gun ownership legally. We require paper trails when you sell your car in a private transaction, it makes sense to have the same rules for selling guns.
There is always a boat load of hyperbole when it comes to the gun control debate. The Left will nearly always use the graves of the most recent mass shooting as a means to push their gun restrictions agenda. The Right has a horrible habit of using the fears of gun owners to prevent even the most common sense of gun legislation. An example of that would be NRA head Wayne Lapierre and his opposition to background checks because they would somehow lead to gun registry. Gun registration and back ground checks aren’t the same thing and bringing up gun registry is a way to stoke fears about any form of legislation regarding Guns.
