Looks like both Pelosi and Reid are making it clear:
“Senator Reid would oppose an effort (to) reinstate the ban if the Senate were to vote on it in the future,” Manley told The Hill in an e-mail late Thursday night.
It was not immediately clear whether Reid would block the bill from the Senate, but his opposition casts serious doubt on its chances. Also, Manley noted that Reid voted against the ban in 1994 and again when it expired in 2004.
Don’t let this lull you into a sense of complacency. We still have enemies in the Senate. Diane Feinstein is vowing to continue fighting for a new assault weapons ban. She won’t stop. The progressives are formulating a plan to start replacing moderate and blue dog Democrats with solid progressives, and they will raise millions of dollars to do so. The 2010 midterms are going to be vitally important.
The first AWB would’ve been impossible without the shock of the OKC bombing, and Clinton’s demonizing of volunteer militias.
But after 9/11, after 7/7, after the Madrid Bombings, after the Mumbai Massacre, I don’t think the majority of Americans can be persuaded that civilian disarmament is a useful tactic in “The War on Terror”. OKC scared the hell out of some people, and Clinton was able to sell the AWB to panicked Americans under the guise of “doing something”, (just as Bush used 9/11 to push the USA Patriot Act, btw) but I believe we as a people have grown tougher and more resolute since then.
Gun control is a political loser, and the Democrats were only able to get their majority by accepting that political reality.
Awesome.
“Remain ever vigilant.”
I covered this one the other night. Short version: we’re going to see an AWB bill entered (my guess would have Feinstein introducing it) as a “give away” as we come up on the 2010 elections.
Think about it: they’re going to need something to distract from how dismally the economy is doing…