UPI Photo/Mike Theiler
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, outlining her proposal in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, argued a new assault weapon ban is necessary to reduce gun violence.
Feinstein, D-Calif., cited massacres at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and an elementary school Newtown, Conn., to make her case Wednesday.
“Weapons are more lethal today than they were in 2004,” when a federal ban on assault weapons expired, she said. “”The need for a federal ban has never been stronger.”
Meanwhile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with Vice President Joe Biden and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, the vice president’s son, in Washington Wednesday to strategize on gun control.
“I walk away pleased, optimistic, I’m not under any delusion that this is a slam dunk or that it is already in the bag,” Bloomberg said outside the White House after their meeting. “I think it is something that the time is coming. And if not now, it’ll be later. The difference is there are gonna be an awful lot more people murdered between now and later.”
Bloomberg also made his way over to Capitol Hill where he talked guns with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois. The mayor, who has transitioned from Democrat to Republican to independent, said he also found those meetings productive, Roll Call said.
“While none of them made a specific commitment — so you can’t go back and say, ‘you told Bloomberg this’ — I walked away comfortable that they understand the issue and that they will be there,” he said.
The Senate hearing was the first on the proposed ban on military-style assault weapons since the Dec. 14 deaths of 20 children and six adults in the Newtown incident, USA Today reported.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, expressed his opposition to Feinstein’s proposal, saying it was based on “arbitrary distinctions” and has “nothing to do with the functions of the weapons.”
The proposal would ban the sale of assault weapons and magazines carrying more than 10 rounds of ammunition, exempting currently existing weapons, as well as the sales, importation and manufacture of semiautomatic weapons with detachable magazines and certain other military features.
The legislation faces an uphill battle, especially in the Republican-controlled House, USA Today said.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
The limbo has armed guards aroud her 24/7 –disarm them and see how safe the bimbo feels – fk her.
We’ll get our hands off your guns when you get your hands off medical pot.
If no deal, we are going to the death over it.
Americans NEED assault weapons because we may need to take on the Federal government at some point and they should not be the only ones with assault weapons.
However if you have cancer and use cannabis the full weight of federal government shall reign down upon your head.
Guns to take on Feds at some point is OK,not suffering through cancer like a man is not OK.
This is the sane and rational place I live in.
We’ll need the assault weapons for when the zombie druggies take over the nation, too. They will soon outnumber sober people if people like you don’t quit preaching your drugs are wonderful crap.
They don’t get guns. Only drunk rednecks are allowed assault weapons. They gonna need em one day when they need to go against them Obama’s of the future. Then they gonna kill all the druggies along with the Feds and then will have a perfect country full of all good people.
Our government right now has weapons that could paralyze us and wipe out all our communications if we tried to rise up against it. I’m not sure we’d even have a chance to load our weapons. I’d love to know why the government is buying up all the ammo it can. (Obama and Pelosi probably bought stock in brass companies or something.)
Genghis Khan killed 40 million people in 25 years and captured 900 million square miles of land, stretching from E. China to E. Europe, just with his domestication and use of the horse as a weapon of war. That far outdid Hitler’s evil deeds. The victims had nothing with which to protect themselves from his Mongolian hoards. Do you want a country full of bad people like them? Or would you want to be one of them so there would be no “good” people left, since you seem to think good is bad?
Stupid people get in their cars and kill other people every day. Why don’t we just ban cars?
“Weapons are more lethal today than they were in 2004,” when a federal ban on assault weapons expired, she said”
Really? Care to explain this?
Sphincter says what?
she was an idiot 20 years ago and just got worse.
You got that right. This bitch should have been ousted when she served on the congressional committee to oversee contractors for the military. Her husband OWNED one of the companies that got a 58 million dollar contract. She needs to either…go away…die a painful death….or do both…
Feinstein is a hypocritical idiot. According to the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION there are 107 countries with gun bans that a have much worse record than the U.S. P/1000 citizens. One of the worse is every socialist heaven Russia with 10.2 death p/1000 compared to the U.S. with 4.2 p/1000. The worst is Honduras with 91.6 p/1000. That is what happens when the citizens can no longer defend themselves. Participating in Gun Buybacks is like having yourself casterated because you believe your neighbors have too many kids.