A Fight to Extend Weapons Ban Is Likely
WASHINGTON — One of the first items visitors to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Capitol Hill office are likely to notice is a pen.
Framed and hung prominently on the wall, it was used by President Clinton in 1994 to sign the federal ban on assault weapons -- a law, written by Feinstein, that she regards as one of her proudest achievements.
But the ban expires next year, and the California Democrat is facing a tough fight in her effort to extend the measure, even though she has an unexpected ally in President Bush.
As a presidential candidate in 2000, Bush broke with his gun-lobby allies by coming out in support of extending the ban.
On Thursday, Feinstein launched a campaign not only to extend the ban but also to include a provision that would prohibit the import of high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Her biggest challenge will be getting the extension passed in the House, where Democrats from rural areas joined the Republican majority in 1996 to vote to repeal the weapons ban. That repeal effort died in the Senate.
Acknowledging the battle ahead, Feinstein recalled the long odds against her a decade ago when a colleague said, "You're new here. You don't know what the gunners are going to do to you." Nevertheless, she prevailed.
In her latest effort, however, only one Republican, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, joined her in formally introducing an extension of the ban. They appeared in a room filled with photographs of the military-style weapons. "Assault weapons are the weapons of choice for criminals and those who are seeking to do the maximum damage possible in the shortest amount of time," Feinstein said. "They are not weapons of choice for hunters or those trying to protect themselves."
Feinstein's measure would make permanent the ban on the manufacture and import of 19 types of military-style assault weapons, such as AK-47s. It also would close what she called a loophole in the 1994 law that permits imports of high-capacity ammunition magazines -- those holding more than 10 rounds.
In the House, similar legislation was introduced Thursday by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), whose husband was gunned down in 1993 and who was elected to Congress three years later, defeating a Republican who backed the ban's repeal.
Her proposal would strengthen the current law by including weapons modified to get around the ban. So far, however, she too has only one Republican co-sponsor, Christopher Shays of Connecticut.
