Washington --

The campaign for tougher federal gun rules suffered a major defeat Tuesday in Congress when the Democratic leader in the Senate said that emerging gun control legislation wouldn't include bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Democratic leader Harry Reid said he wouldn't include the bans in the gun control package because they lacked support in the Senate.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the prime author of the bans, said she was "very disappointed" by Reid's decision but would offer the proposed bans as separate floor amendments.

"I am not going to lie down and play dead," she said, pledging to continue her fight.

The development reduces the Senate's gun violence package to three bills approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee: a gun trafficking bill, an expanded background checks measure, and a proposal to put more money into school security.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, chair of the House task force on gun violence that had recommended a ban on assault weapons and large ammunition clips, said, "Sen. Feinstein put up a good fight."

While national public opinion polls show widespread support for tougher gun measures, the message wasn't getting to Congress, Thompson said.

"It's easier for someone to respond to a pollster than it is to convey that sentiment to a member of Congress," Thompson said. He told of a House colleague who shrugged off an invitation to co-write a gun bill because he "wasn't hearing anything from the district," despite what the national opinion polls show.

Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor, was the author of the 1994 assault weapons ban. That measure passed by a bare majority only because it included a sunset date 10 years later. The ban was not renewed when it expired in 2004.

Adam Lanza, the gunman in Newtown, Conn., shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a school on Dec. 14, used a military-style assault weapon with a 30-round magazine.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said: "The assault weapons ban was always an uphill battle this session. As we have known all along, we face a marathon effort and not a sprint. As the cyclists of Newtown's Team 26 said, 'We need to keep pedaling.' "

Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut, whose district includes Newtown, said the assault weapons ban "deserves a vote in the full Senate and the full House."

Charles J. Lewis and Carolyn Lochhead are reporters in the Hearst Newspapers Washington bureau.

 

 

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Harry-Reid-won-t-add-gun-bans-to-bills-4368732.php#ixzz2O4SufsFB

Believe it or not...maybe just a coincidence... but I just got notification that lowers I had on back order freed up.

 

But I don't think anything is a coincidence. Now if the rest of the parts and ammo become available Great!

 

BTW the lowers are not the ones I ordered and cost $22 more...LOL Guess prices have been corrected higher.

it's not good news. the entire bill was dead on arival with that in it. taking it out lets them have a good chance of getting everythign else.

Believe it or not...maybe just a coincidence... but I just got notification that lowers I had on back order freed up.

 

But I don't think anything is a coincidence. Now if the rest of the parts and ammo become available Great!

 

BTW the lowers are not the ones I ordered and cost $22 more...LOL Guess prices have been corrected higher.

 

When did you order the ones that were on back order?

WAHOO!

 

Feinstein said she's not gonna "lie there and play dead". Oh, would it just not satisfy us gun owners completely if she did? ;-)

It's easier to pass part as amendments rather than a giant bill.

Do we think that the changing mood on this will help us in NJ?

This may have been the plan all along. Now the rest of the regulations seem more reasonable by comparison.

 

And the dropped parts of the bill will show up later attached to funding for school lunches, funding for battered woman's shelters, medication for poor kids, or some other bill that will be hard to vote against.

Do we think that the changing mood on this will help us in NJ?

 

No

WAHOO!

 

Feinstein said she's not gonna "lie there and play dead". Oh, would it just not satisfy us gun owners completely if she did? ;-)

I heard that is what she said to her husband...

It's good news for today but I'm not jumping for joy just yet.

I wouldn't start screaming wahoo we won quite yet. She is an evil person and still has an agenda.

And she isn't the only evil one on capital hill...though I despise her most....