In a bit of a turnaround, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated that he may allow a vote on a gun ban. Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, is a long-time gun rights advocate. He indicated earlier that he wasn’t going to go with a vote because he felt the House of Representatives, which is majority Republican, would not join in to vote for a ban. After a meeting with other Democrats in the Senate, Reid noted to reporters that he expects "to have a free amendment process" on legislation to control gun sales and related issues.
It’s possible that the matter will go to a further extreme, with some Democrats wanting to push for an outright ban on semi-automatic assault weapons like the one that was in place from 1994 to 2004. Shootings in schools over the past several months have shone the spotlight on the issue, and many politicians are treading carefully and trying to get a feel for which way the wind is blowing before speaking out on the topic.
Reid indicated that legislation "may not be everything everyone wants. But I hope it has stuff that is really important." On Tuesday night, Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the NRA, claimed that President Obama was seeking to remove basic rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. Said LaPierre, "They are God-given freedoms. They belong to us in the United States of America as our birthright. No government gave them to us and no government can ever take them away. That means we believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic firearms technology. We believe that if neither the criminal nor the political class and their bodyguards and their security people are limited by magazine capacity, we should not be limited in our capacity either."
It’s possible that the matter will go to a further extreme, with some Democrats wanting to push for an outright ban on semi-automatic assault weapons like the one that was in place from 1994 to 2004. Shootings in schools over the past several months have shone the spotlight on the issue, and many politicians are treading carefully and trying to get a feel for which way the wind is blowing before speaking out on the topic.
Reid indicated that legislation "may not be everything everyone wants. But I hope it has stuff that is really important." On Tuesday night, Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the NRA, claimed that President Obama was seeking to remove basic rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. Said LaPierre, "They are God-given freedoms. They belong to us in the United States of America as our birthright. No government gave them to us and no government can ever take them away. That means we believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic firearms technology. We believe that if neither the criminal nor the political class and their bodyguards and their security people are limited by magazine capacity, we should not be limited in our capacity either."