Democrats Throw In Towel On Assault Weapons Ban

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has significantly weakened gun control legislation, stripping a provision that would have banned assault-style weapons and high-capacity gun clips.

The move will make it easier for the Senate to pass a milder gun control bill that deals mostly with controlling who can purchase a gun. It also spares red-state Senate Democrats running in 2014 from having to vote on a bill that could cost them re-election.

“An assault weapons ban was always a poison bill that was great for the White House to talk about but politically damaging for those vulnerable Democrats representing red states to support,” Ron Bonjean, a Republican political strategist and former House and Senate leadership aide, told The Washington Examiner.

The Senate will vote on a gun control bill measure in April, but it won’t include a proposal authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would have made it illegal to purchase military-style assault weapons and gun clips that can hold more than 10 rounds.

Feinstein announced the provision in the weeks following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, standing with shooting victims and law enforcement agents near a wall displaying some of the 157 assault-style weapons she hoped to make illegal. Feinstein’s measure cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last week with the support of the panel’s Democratic majority, but no Republicans voted for it. Beyond the committee, some Democrats from pro-gun states were against it.

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