Biden and the White House Still Pushing for Assault Weapons Ban

The White House and their allies are not going to give up on an assault weapons ban, even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cut the assault weapons ban out of the gun control bill that the Senate will consider. Joe Biden said Wednesday:

I’m still pushing that it pass — we are still pushing that it pass. The same thing was told to me when the first assault weapons ban in ’94 was attached to the Biden crime bill, that it couldn’t possibly pass. It was declared dead several times. I believe that the vast majority of the American people agree with us, the vast majority of gun owners agree with us, that military-style assault weapons are — these are weapons of war; they don’t belong in the street. And [in] the recent decision declaring the right of someone to own a weapon in their home for self-protection, Justice [Antonin] Scalia acknowledged that you can constitutionally ban certain types of weapons. So I’m not going to give up on this.

Barack Obama selected Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1994 when the 10-year assault weapons ban was implemented, to lead a Congressional task force that would suggest avenues toward less gun violence. Obama has urged Congress to ban assault weapons.

Biden’s remarks came only a day after White House chief of staff Denis McDonough boasted that the White House would “find the votes” for an assault weapons ban, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was sponsoring the new assault weapons ban, said, “This is very important to me. And I’m not going to lay down and play dead. I think the American people have said in every single public poll that they support this kind of legislation.”