SALON

Monday, Jan 14, 2013 2:03 PM UTC

Focus shifts to Congress on gun control

Biden is preparing to make gun policy recommendations to the President on Tuesday

By

Topics: Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Gun Violence, Gun Control, Michael Bloomberg, Maryland, Colorado, New York,

Focus shifts to Congress on gun control (Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Joe Biden will meet with the members of the House Democrats’ gun violence task force Monday morning to discuss a way forward for gun control legislation in Congress. But things aren’t looking so promising. 

On Sunday, NRA president David Keene predicted that an assault weapons ban won’t make it through Congress. And Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia also indicated that a ban by itself won’t pass, and it needs to be part of a broader gun control package.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has his doubts as well:

Mr. Reid has long cast himself as a protector of the Second Amendment and recently expressed doubts about the prospects of banning assault weapons. On “Nevada Week in Review,” a public television program in Las Vegas, he said a ban may pass the Senate, but likely wouldn’t win sufficient support in the House. He added that “the American people want us to be very cautious what we do.”

Mr. Reid has a complicated relationship with the NRA, which in 2010 declined to endorse him or his Republican opponent. The Nevada Democrat has opposed an assault weapons ban in the past. But in the wake of the Connecticut shootings, he said every idea should be on the table.

Biden has said that he expects to bring proposals to the President on Tuesday, and that executive action is on the table if Congress won’t act.

On the state level, there is a slightly more hope for legislation to pass. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, for example, is pushing a broad gun control package that is not facing much opposition from the Republican-controlled state Senate.

In Maryland, Gov.Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, is also reportedly pushing sweeping gun control legislation, including implementing “some of the nation’s strictest gun-licensing requirements, ban assault weapons and restrict visitor access to schools,” according to the Washington Post, and forcing “prospective gun owners to provide fingerprints to state police, complete a hands-on weapon-familiarization and gun-safety course, and undergo a background check to be licensed.”

O’Malley will be attending a two-day gun control summit at Johns Hopkins University, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to discuss potential measures.

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com. More Jillian Rayfield.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 1 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
247 points248 points | 23 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
166 points167 points | 73 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
50 points51 points | 18 comments
vote
"New evidence reveals big banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands of homes – and weak settlement allows it."
27 points28 points | comment
vote
Are millennials delusional? New research suggests that members of "Generation Me" are warped by a profound sense of entitlement
24 points25 points | 16 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations