A group of Democratic lawmakers pushed to ban assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines Tuesday in the wake of Colorado's shooting massacre, but congressional leaders are unwilling to touch the volatile issue. "We have to sound the alarm," said Senator Frank Lautenberg, who 18 months ago introduced legislation that would have banned 100-round "drum magazines" similar to the one used in the Aurora massacre, only to see that bill die in Congress.
"We cannot let the NRA stop us from commonsense reforms anymore," he said, referring to the National Rifle Association, the powerful pro-gun lobby that keeps close tabs on lawmakers' voting records on issues related to the constitutionally-enshrined right to bear arms.
Representative Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed and son wounded by a gunman on a New York commuter train in 1993, said the issue of restricting the size of gun clips "has nothing to do with Second Amendment rights."
"We do not have to have citizens armed to the teeth so they can go in and kill innocent people. That is not freedom," she said.
Calls for a re-examination of America's gun laws mounted in the aftermath of the tragedy in Aurora that left 12 dead and 58 wounded, as it emerged that the suspect, James Holmes, bought his four weapons, including an assault rifle with a reported 100-round magazine, legally.
Senator Dianne Feinstein said it was time to consider reimposing the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired a decade later under a sunset provision.
"Weapons of war do not belong on our streets, plain and simple," said Feinstein, who counts the ban as one of her chief accomplishments.
"I am considering how I might strengthen the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 and how best to move forward with that bill."
She has support from fellow Senator Barbara Boxer, who on Monday wrote a newspaper op-ed backing the ban.
Boxer took Congress to task for failing to implement sufficient safeguards after two students shot dead 12 classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in 1999, and after Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head last year by a gunman at a public event in the lawmaker's district.
"With the exception of the Virginia Tech incident (in 2007, when a mentally ill student shot dead 32 people), which led to some improvements in the instant background check system, we have failed to pass the broader protections we need to help keep our families safe," Boxer wrote.
Trying to ram through gun legislation is a toxic undertaking in a US election year, and the White House made it clear at the weekend that President Barack Obama wanted to use "existing law" to prevent gun violence. Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner agreed.
Even Senate Majority Harry Reid was adamant that his fellow Democrats' push for legislation was going nowhere.
"I think we should just wait for a reasonable period of time before people are off making statements about what they should do and what they shouldn't do," Reid told reporters.
Lautenberg and Senator Robert Menendez, both from New Jersey, which has some of the nation's toughest gun laws, made it clear they knew their legislation push was dead in the water, but stressed the importance of at least starting a public debate.
"I hope that this does spark a national conversation about where we go in terms of reasonable gun control measures," Menendez said.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette of Colorado, some of whose constituents were killed in the Aurora shooting last week, said that the "dialogue should be happening right now."
"The US House of Representatives has had 23 moments of silence for gun victims (since DeGette came to Congress in 1996), and we're having another one tonight."
Tuesday marked the 14th anniversary of a shooting in which a mentally ill gunman burst into the US Capitol and killed two police officers.
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