On “Meet The Press” this morning, Dianne Feinstein announced that she and Chuck Schumer will introduce an assault weapons ban when the 113rd Congress convenes on January 3rd.
“I can tell you that he is going to have a bill to lead on because as a first-day bill I’m going to introduce in the Senate and the same bill will be introduced in the House — a bill to ban assault weapons,” she said. “It will ban the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession. Not retroactively but prospectively. And it will ban the same for big clips, drums or strips of more than 10 bullets.”
On Twitter, there are some anecdotal signs that this might be a winning move. MTP executive producer Betsy Fischer Martin said that the show’s staff reached out “ALL 31 pro gun rights Sens” and not one was willing to discuss the issue on the air. And the press office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — America’s least popular Senator, according to a December 11th PPP poll — has given no indication yet that his caucus will try to filibuster this bill.
On Thursday, there wouldn’t have been no question — either on Twitter or “IRL”— as to whether or not such a proposal would be scuppered by Senate Republicans. Clearly, they haven’t the faintest idea of how to respond to Friday’s horror — a tacit admission that their extremist interpretation of the second amendment just might be failing Americans.
And with the fiscal cliff looming, Senate GOPers might concede that this fight isn’t worth the political capital.
For Feinstein’s bill to become law, though, House Republicans, too, must have crisis of conscience. If Louie Gohmert’s literal call to arms on Fox News Sunday is any indication (not too bothered by the “well-regulated” aspect of the militia, I see), they aren’t.
