By DAN FREEDMAN
and RICK DUNHAM
Advocates of stricter gun legislation, emboldened by a shift in public opinion following last week’s school shootings in Newtown, Conn., pushed Monday for a renewed assault weapons ban and other gun control measures that have failed to gain traction over the past decade.
Three days after a gunman took the lives of 20 children and six adults with a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle, several pro-gun lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. — said they were willing to consider new firearms legislation.
“We need to accept the reality that we are not doing enough to protect our citizens,’’ said Reid said in a statement on the Senate floor. “In the coming days and weeks, we will engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allow violence to grow.’’
Even Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a longtime NRA member with an A-rating from the powerful gun lobbying organization, said “everything should be on the table.”
Appearing on MSNBC, he added that Second Amendment rights would not necessarily be violated by controls on high-capacity magazines. “I’ve never had more than three shells in a clip,” said Manchin. “I’m a proud outdoorsman and hunter, but this doesn’t make sense.’’
Statements from Democrats such as Reid, Manchin and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., — who said Monday “the status quo isn’t acceptable’’ — are a key measure of strength for gun control because even though the party is generally sympathetic to restraints on firearms, these senators and others with significant pro-gun rural constituencies have insulated themselves in Republican-leaning states in part by championing gun rights.
But it wasn’t just lawmakers who were reassessing their views. Support for stricter gun control measures has reached a five-year high in the aftermath of the Connecticut school massacre, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll released today.
Fifty-four percent of Americans back new controls on guns — and 59 percent back curbs on the high-capacity ammunition clips used in many of the recent shooting rampages.
Another shift: Gun control supporters now have more intensity than opponents of stricter controls. Forty-four percent of Americans say they “strongly” favor stricter action while 32 percent say they oppose new controls “strongly.”
Gun control advocates — led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and backed by Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy — pushed for swift action in Washington.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she would introduce an “updated’’ assault weapons ban that would outlaw 100 specifically-named firearms, weapons that can accept detachable magazines as well as certain semiautomatic rifles, handguns and shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
Feinstein is the author of the assault weapons ban that became law in 1994 but expired in 2004 when Congress refused to renew it.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also is likely to re-introduce legislation to require universal background checks on all weapons transactions. Current law requires background checks on weapons sold by federally licensed firearms dealers. Schumer’s measure, along with a similar bill by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., in the House, would also require background checks on transactions between private parties, with a few exceptions.
Nevertheless, members of Congress who favor gun control face what may prove to be an insurmountable barrier of lawmakers from both parties who are not likely to change their support for gun rights.
For the most part, pro-gun Republicans who control the House remained conspicuously silent Monday. “One indisputable call to action from the Connecticut tragedy — SECURE YOUR GUNS IF YOU OWN THEM,’’ Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said via Twitter.
But opposition to new laws nevertheless percolated from a few House members such as Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas. “Instead of saying we need to outlaw certain types weapons, we need to find better ways to enforce current law,’’ Green said in an interview. “The kneejerk approach of those who want to control firearms may not be the solution.’’
He predicted that neither the proposed assault weapons ban nor the expanded background-checks proposal “would move in the House.’’
Gun control advocates acknowledge the climb may be steep to get gun-control legislation through Congress. But they say that unlike previous incidents such as the one at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in July, in which a shooter, James Holmes, took the lives of 12 and wounded 57, the drumbeat for change in gun laws is much stronger in the wake of the Connecticut shootings.
“We have to change the paradigm and culture on this issue,’’ said Colin Goddard, federal of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who survived four gunshot wounds in the 2007 Virginia Tech attack in which 32 died. “We’ve got to get over the dismal, bleak outlook that nothing can be done.’’