US senator launches bid to ban assault weapons

US: A leading Democratic senator launched a bid Sunday to ban assault weapons in the wake of the latest deadly US school shooting, announcing that she will put a bill before Congress on January 3.

Dianne Feinstein, the influential chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she believed President Barack Obama would support her legislation, also aimed at outlawing magazines carrying more than 10 bullets.

“I'm going to introduce in the Senate, and the same bill will be introduced in the House, a bill to ban assault weapons,” the California lawmaker told NBC's “Meet the Press” program.

Feinstein said she would announce the authors of the House of Representatives' bill soon and vowed that carefully crafted legislation would be tabled on the first day of the new Congress.

“There will be a bill,” she said, stressing the world “will.” “It will ban the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession (of assault weapons). Not retroactively, but prospectively. It will ban the same for big clips, drums or strips of more than 10 bullets,” she added.

Asked if Obama, who failed to take steps during his first term to tighten gun controls despite several high-profile shooting tragedies, would throw his support behind the measure, Feinstein replied: “I believe he will.” Speaking at an emotional vigil in Newtown, Obama indicated on Sunday that he did plan to take action as he made an impassioned plea for “change” but stopped short of announcing any specific measures on gun control.

“We can't accept events like this as routine,” the president said. “We as a nation are left with some hard questions. These tragedies have to end, and to end them we must change.” Adam Lanza, 20, used his mother's legally acquired Bushmaster .223 assault rifle to kill 26 people, including 20 children aged either six or seven, in Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

AFP