Assault Weapons

WASHINGTON - A group of Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Linda Sanchez of California  is launching an effort to secure money for gun buybacks, firearms safety campaigns and anti-violence programs from a new tax on handgun purchases. Sanchez unveiled the bill, which would impose a 10% tax on handgun purchases,  Thursday at Los Angeles County Sheriff's headquarters in Monterey Park.  “It is time to give our law enforcement agencies all the necessary resources to prevent gun violence," Sanchez said.

SACRAMENTO - A Bay Area man who authorities say was building homemade bombs was arrested this week for threatening to kill a state lawmaker. Everett Basham, 45, was booked on multiple charges, including possession of a manufactured explosive and illegal possession of chemicals used to make explosives. Police served an arrest warrant for the man after being alerted by state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), whose office said the lawmaker had been threatened with death for pushing legislation to restrict assault weapons.

California may have the toughest gun laws in the country, but lax federal rules make the state vulnerable to people bringing assault rifles and other restricted weapons across the state line, according to a resolution signed  by 21 state senators. The resolution supported by the Senate majority urges President Obama and Congress to adopt a national ban on assault weapons and large ammunition magazines and to require a universal background check for all transfers of firearms. "Because our borders are porous and only a small number of states regulate assault weapons and high-capacity assault magazines, states, like California, that take steps to protect their communities from these weapons are vulnerable to criminals who use those weapons without a comprehensive federal approach to curb gun violence," says the resolution written by state Sen Lois Wolk (D-Davis)

LANSDOWNE, Va. -- Even as she acknowledged that passing a new assault weapons ban would be a challenge,  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) called on Congress to consider the “boldest possible package” to reduce gun violence in the “small window” that has opened for action. An assault weapons ban was one of 15 proposals in a plan issued Thursday by a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force led by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), which mirrored a similar report from a White House panel led by Vice President Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON - Action in Washington over the next few months on gun control, immigration and fiscal policy will set the stage for a fierce midterm election battle next year, with control of Congress the ultimate prize. Republicans are expected to keep their majority in the House, and history would suggest they might expand their numbers in the sixth year of a two-term presidency. But the Democrats' hold on the Senate is at risk, with competitive 2014 contests for at least nine of their seats - seven in states Mitt Romney carried in 2012.

MINNEAPOLIS - With police officers and troopers in uniform arrayed behind him, President Obama on Monday pitched his proposals to curtail gun violence with an appeal for "common sense" and bipartisanship, even as he downplayed the prospects for key parts of his plan. Speaking to law enforcement officials at a Minneapolis police facility, Obama said he saw a consensus emerging on Capitol Hill in favor of expanding background checks to all gun buyers, one of three core proposals in the plan he unveiled after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden met Thursday with Senate Democrats to brief the caucus about the rationale behind the administration's recommendations on guns, arguing that, in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting, the nation “will not understand if we don't act.” Biden seemed intent to emphasize that the most politically challenging of the initiatives he has  recommended - an assault weapons ban - was still a priority for the administration,...

Gun owners truly have nothing to worry about. There are no federal commandos coming to break down their doors and take away their guns. Sure, there is an outside chance that a universal gun registration system will be approved by Congress, but anything more, including -- and especially -- an assault weapons ban, will be scuttled by the House Republican caucus, if not by Democrats trying to win reelection in gun-friendly red states. And yet, given the rhetoric of the National Rifle Assn.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Monday met with police chiefs from around the country -- including three from communities affected by mass shootings -- as part of his effort to build support for the gun control measures he wants to push through Congress. At a morning meeting at the White House, Obama asked the law enforcement officials to put pressure on lawmakers to act on the measures he endorsed in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. “If law enforcement officials who are dealing with this stuff every single day can come to some basic consensus in terms of steps that we need to take, Congress is going to be paying attention to them and we'll be able to make progress,” Obama said.

RICHMOND, Va. - With Congress set to launch a debate over stricter gun control measures next week, Vice President Joe Biden took the administration's sales pitch on the road Friday, citing "an obligation to act" to reduce gun violence. Biden, who has led the White House response to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, said the nation was shaken by the massacre of 20 first-graders and called the episode "a window into the vulnerability people feel about their safety and the safety of their children.