Senate Judiciary Committee to consider assault weapons ban

[Pullo]

But the move to include the assault weapons ban in the Judiciary Committee package guarantees that the National Rifle Association and gun-rights groups will try to derail the bill in committee or when it reaches the Senate floor during the next several weeks.

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By considering the Feinstein assault weapons ban in committee — and it is likely to be adopted with Democratic support — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will face a likely GOP filibuster on any gun legislation.

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If this is the case, then Leahy and the leadership are going to poison pill the all gun control proposals, including universal background checks, if whatever the committee recommends has the Feinstein AWB included. Even if such a beast made it out of the Senate, it would be happily roasted and broiled by the House, and that's if it ever made it to the floor.

[Dr_Scholl]

1. It'll be stripped from the bill.

And so will anything having to do with high capacity magazines.

Nothing with the word "ban" in it will pass the House, or survive a filibuster in the Senate.

[madville]

2. Harry already has this figured out

Mandatory background checks and better mental health reporting, no bans on magazines and assault rifles.

We just have to watch how it plays out but I'm sure everyone has already been assigned their role in the show.

[Pullo]

3. You might be right

Obama Gun Control Likely To Be Broken Into Pieces By Senate

The choice to mark up Feinstein's bill in committee was not easy, according to aides on the Hill. Congressional aides and outside groups carefully watching the legislation said they had anticipated the committee would put together a comprehensive package consisting of the three other legislative components. The committee would then pass that package to the Senate floor for consideration. Once there, lawmakers would consider adding the assault weapons ban as an amendment. Barring the unexpected, it would not muster the 60 votes needed for passage.

By marking up the assault weapons ban in committee, Leahy has chosen a different path. The bill likely has the support needed to pass in the committee. The only Democratic committee member who is a question mark is Leahy himself. But since the assault weapons ban likely doesn't have 60 votes in the Senate at large, Democratic leadership will have to ensure that it doesn't endanger the three other gun control components.

The consensus on how to do that was moving toward "a piecemeal approach," two aides involved in legislative strategy said. "You do them separately," explained one of those aides. "On the floor, maybe you put certain pieces together."

Those pieces, the aide added, would be the federal trafficking statute, mental health legislation and universal background checks.

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