Tuesday, December 18, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama is "actively supportive" of efforts on Capitol Hill to reinstate an assault weapons ban.
Obama has long backed the ban, but has failed to push for it throughout his first term. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce legislation to reinstate the ban early next year.
White House spokesman Jay Carney says Obama would also support legislation to close the gun show "loophole," which allows people to buy guns from private dealers without background checks.
The president has pledged to address gun violence in the coming weeks following Friday's deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.
Obama spoke Tuesday with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat and avid hunter who is now supportive of a national discussion on preventing gun violence.
Comments
old_mountain 11 years, 4 months ago
May it be so.
bubbat 11 years, 4 months ago
Right, create laws that do nothing to solve the problem. Typical. How about doing something about the mentally ill people that commit mass murder and the other criminals, instead of making laws that only effect gun owners who aren't committing crimes?
bill_jackson 11 years, 4 months ago
Any reason to believe it will be any more effective this time around?
tstauffer 11 years, 4 months ago
I think for the assault weapons ban to be more effective this time around we might have to put more teeth in the law -- not so many legacy loopholes.
But, Bubba is right -- we probably have to think further outside the box on a new set of laws to limit this violence. I think for the laws to be more effective the real solution would be stricter registration of firearms and licensing of owners (kinda like voter ID), universal background checks and considerable limits on the availability of modifications and kits, ammo purchases over the Internet, in Wal-Mart from part-time employees who leave the cages unlocked, etc.
We need to make gun ownership and gun/ammo sales a professional endeavor that is the domain of the licensed, trained, registered and responsible.
It's time to treat gun ownership as if it was at least as much of a responsibility as owning and driving a car.
bill_jackson 11 years, 4 months ago
My guess, since it's Sen. Feinstein that has stated that she will introduce the bill, is that they will again go after firearms with certain cosmetic features. And any magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Don't be surprised to see a lot more efforts to tax ammo at ridiculous rates, as well.
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