Paper: ''Gun control a loser in election''

This must be a result of that "lack of mandate" the Brady Campaign is talking about...

November 15, 2004
Connecticut Post Online

Assault weapons ban renewal unlikely in Congress

Gun-control advocates lost ground in the 2004 elections, ending any shot that Congress will renew a federal ban on assault weapons in the next two years.

"My general reading is that neither side wants it to come up," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4.

The 10-year-old ban, which Shays co-authored, outlawed 19 semi-automatic weapons as well as guns with certain military-style features such as folding stocks, bayonet mounts or flash suppressors.

A clause directed that the ban expire in September 2004 unless Congress specifically reauthorized it.

That did not happen.

House Republican leaders refused to bring the issue to a floor vote and proponents garnered only a third of the 218 signatures needed to force the issue.

The Senate voted 52-47 in favor of a 10-year extension of the ban, as an amendment offered to another bill.

The Senate's pro-ban majority, however, has turned.

Seven of nine newly elected members to the Senate oppose the ban, and another would only support a more narrowly defined ban. They replace senators who voted six to three in favor of the ban.

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