Newtown massacre renews assault gun fight
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who led the charge for a federal assault weapons ban after a San Francisco massacre left nine people dead two decades ago, is again at the forefront of the battle over guns with her call for new legislation in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 20 schoolchildren in Connecticut.
But prospects for any new legislation are uncertain as the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired eight years ago for lack of support from Washington lawmakers of either major party. The gun lobby is expected to resist legislative proposals, while lawmakers may be reluctant to take up the issue in earnest.
As the slain elementary school students are buried this week, Feinstein will face pressure to deliver legislation, particularly from fellow Democrats who are fed up with the bloodshed. The victims in Friday's rampage were shot multiple times by a gunman armed with semiautomatic weapons.
While Feinstein has registered outrage again and again after mass gun violence - from the shootings at Columbine and Aurora, Colo., to Oakland's Oikos University - she has failed to gain support to reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which was signed by PresidentBill Clinton.
New legislation
On Monday, she confirmed that she will introduce legislation in the new Congress in January that would ban more than 100 specific firearms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns and shotguns, while exempting more than 900 other weapons.
"I intend, one way or the other, to get that bill through," she told MSNBC.
Feinstein's move has already won support from pro-gun Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchinof West Virginia, who as a candidate received backing from the National Rifle Association.
But others concede that California's senior senator faces daunting hurdles: a powerful gun lobby, a compliant Congress and a president unwilling to use muscle to push the issue in his first term.
After Friday's deadly rampage, President Obama said something must be done to curb such shootings and that it may take the efforts of "strong local officials, like mayors" to push Capitol Hill to get to work.
"I'm frankly shocked at the lack of action by legislative leaders, given the things that have happened," said Daniel Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.
The National Rifle Association is the single biggest player shaping the debate, Macallair said. Since 2004, when the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired, "the general consensus is that you don't want to arouse the gun industry, and Democrats were not willing to take it on," he said.
"They were afraid they would pay the price at the polls," Macallair added, fearful of the wrath of "angry white male" voters who long have been perceived as the heart of the NRA membership.
The right person
Feinstein, he said, may be just the centrist Democrat to take the lead - and get it done.
Republicans, too, say Feinstein's leadership hasn't lacked in the assault weapons debate, which was fueled by the 1993 shootings at 101 California, a downtown San Francisco high-rise where gunman Gian Luigi Ferri killed eight people and injured six others before killing himself in the worst mass shooting in the city.
But Feinstein will need Obama's help to deliver legislation, said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
"There is an opening here, and this is where the president and the bully pulpit have to step up," Whalen said. "He can be the consoler-in-chief, but to effect change he has to risk political capital and get into a fight with the gun lobby."
Billie Weiss, founder of the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, said Feinstein has tried repeatedly to kick the issue into gear, unsuccessfully.
"We've had such a sea change in Congress and the polarization and the absolute refusal to talk about issues of public safety in a meaningful way," she said. Feinstein, Weiss added, "has not had the allies, and the administration has been very quiet up until now on this. We've been somewhat disappointed about that."
Shocking rampage
But the Connecticut shootings, Weiss added, have been shocking enough to get the nation's attention - and perhaps the political will to succeed.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who has attended funerals of child constituents cut down in gun violence, said she applauds Feinstein for stepping up again on a critical issue, and pledged Monday to help her.
"We have to address gun violence by passing the assault weapons ban," she said. "And I hope to be one of the House co-sponsors of the bill."
"Hopefully, the country will understand that the NRA should not be controlling the political agenda," she said. "I have five grandchildren and two sons. We've got to do more."
To see this article in its original format, go HERE.