Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts became the first sitting Republican to lend support to Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein's proposition to place a federal ban on assault weapons, which she plans to present to congress in January.
Brown told reporters, "As a state legislator in Massachusetts, I supported an assault weapons ban thinking other states would follow suit. But unfortunately they have not and innocent people are being killed...As a result, I support a federal assault weapons ban, perhaps like the legislation we have in Massachusetts," as reported by Yahoo News.
The California democrat Feinstein is the chair of the judiciary committee chair. President Barrack Obama has already said that he would support and push for her proposal in the White House. The White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney said, "the president would consider limits on high-capacity magazines and would back efforts to prevent people from buying guns through unlicensed dealers without a background check," as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The President addressed the White House in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, urging lawmakers that the national debate over gun-control has '"re-emerged."
"This is not some Washington commission, this is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside. This is a team that has a very specific task to pull together real reforms, right now," said the President as reported by Voice of America.
In a speech in Newton on Sunday President Obama offered words of comforts to victims' families and friends, where he also mentioned that, "no single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society. But that can't be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we can do better than this," as reported by CNN News.
According to reports, the President has trusted the Vice President, Joe Biden, to spearhead the agenda on federal gun control legislation, given Joe Biden's track-record in such matters.
Pro-gun control legislators say that if anyone can champion the debate of federal gun-control legislation in congress, it will be Vice President Biden, particularly because of his previous successes in this field during his reign as senator.
In 1988, Biden introduced a Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which took nearly six year to pass through congress, which it did in 1994. In 2007, Biden looked to pass the Crime Control and Prevention Act. Both of these legislations deal with federal gun-control and also seek to strengthen background checks on purchases of weapons as well as stricter mental health assessment of those who purchase weapons.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that it would support "meaningful contribution" to prevent further mass shootings such as the one that took place in elementary school in Connecticut on Friday. The NRA plans to hold a conference on the issue of such legislation.
Members from both parties have expressed willingness to work to on legislation that would restrict military style rifles and large ammunition magazines.
