An attendee holds an assault style weapon at the 7th annual
Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona. REUTERS/Joshua
Lott
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat,
said today that fewer than 40 of his chamber's 100 members
support a White House-backed bill to renew a ban against
military-style assault weapons.
The scant support virtually assures rejection of the bill, a
centerpiece of Obama's bid to curb gun violence in wake of a
massacre at a Connecticut elementary school on December 14
that left 20 children and six adults dead.
"Right now," Reid told reporters, the bill drafted by
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, "has less
than 40 votes."
A simple majority would be needed to win passage of the bill
in the Democratic-led Senate, but 60 would likely be required
to first clear an anticipated Republican procedural
roadblock.
Obama, Feinstein and others backers of the bill to renew a
ban against the sale and manufacture of military-style
assault weapons, argue that the firearms should be removed
from the street.
But opponents, a number of Senate Republicans, along with
some Democrats from rural areas where guns are popular, argue
that the action would amount to a violation of the right to
bear arms, which is enshrined in the US Constitution.
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