The Democratic majority-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee has approved an assault weapons ban in a party-line vote, underlining how difficult will it will be for the measure to survive in the Senate, according to the Associated Press.
California Dianne Feinstein's proposal was approved on a 10-8 vote on Thursday. The committee approved the bill banning almost 160 specific military-style assault weapons. All Democrats (10) voted in favor of the bill, while all Republicans voted no. In addition to banning various rifles, shotguns and parts, the bill also limited the size of the ammunition clips to 10 rounds.
The committee's vote capped a week of sometimes contentious debate and the passage of four Democratic-backed proposals to limit gun violence in the U.S., introduced after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut leaving 20 school kids dead.
"In addition to the assault weapons ban, the committee approved a bill making the practice of illegally purchasing firearms for someone else a federal crime for the first time, and measures to expand the nation's gun background check system and a Justice Department program that funds school security plans," The Washington Post reported.
With the committee's work completed, debate over gun control now shifts to the full Senate, where the chamber's divide between liberal, urban-state Democrats and Republicans and moderate Democrats weary of infringing on the rights of gun owners makes passage of the four proposals more difficult.
Despite the odds, Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) told reporters Thursday, "I wanted to get these four bills to the floor."
"The road is uphill. I fully understand that," Feinstein told reporters. "[But] I cannot get out of my mind trying to find the pulse in someone and putting my fingers in a bullet hole."
During the hearing, Feinstein was embroiled in a heated exchange with Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who raised concerns about how the bill might chip away at constitutional protections for gun owners.
"Would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing to the Second Amendment, in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment?", Cruz asked.
"I'm not a sixth grader," Feinstein said. "I'm not a lawyer, but after 20 years I've been up close and personal with the Constitution. I have great respect for it."
