The Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee did not endorse colleague Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban at a packed Capitol Hill hearing on guns Wednesday in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called for “common sense reform,” that closes loopholes in current gun laws and enforces background checks. Buthe did not endorse Feinstein’s tougher ban. “I know gun store owners in Vermont,” Leahy said. “They follow the law and conduct background checks…why should we not try to plug the loopholes in the law that allow (criminals and the mentally ill) to buy guns without background checks?”

The rebuffed California Democrat plans to hold her own hearing in her Judiciary subcommittee on her legislation, which is strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association. Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has also refused to back a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity clips. Reid’s position reflects the political fact that a whole bevy of conservative Democrats do not support Feinstein’s ban.

Former Arizona Rep. Gabriel Giffords opened the hearing. As a House Democrat from a gun friendly district, Giffords opposed stricter gun laws, but since being shot in the head by a crazed gunman while holding an event in her district has reversed her position. Giffords, accompanied by her husband, gave a halting and brief but extremely forceful opening statement.

“Speaking is difficult but I need to say something important,” Giffords said. “Too many children are dying
We must do something. It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be courageous, Americans are counting on you.”

Her husband Mark Kelly gave equally forceful testimony, noting both he and Giffords are gun owners. He said the Arizona gunman who shot his wife in 15 seconds emptied his magazine of 33 bullets, “and there were 33 wounds,” including a fatal shot to a young child. Kelly said one of the most important things to do is close the gun show loophole and require all sellers to require a background check. “I can’t think of something that would make our country safer than doing just that,” Kelly said.

David Kopel, an adjunct Professor of constitutional law at Denver University, said universal background checks “are only enforceable with universal gun registration,” which in other countries has left gun ownership “in serious peril.”

Kopel said teachers should be allowed to be armed, as they are in Utah. “Armed defense in schools is the immediate and best choice,” he said.

Gayle Trotter, an attorney and senior fellow at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, said guns “make women safer,” because they “reverse the balance of power in a violent confrontation” between a male attacker and a weaker female. “An armed woman does not need superior strength” in a hand-to-hand struggle, Trotter said.