Feinstein: Bills to Ban Assault Weapons Will Be a Priority

Bills to return a ban on assault weapons in the United States will be introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives on the first day they are in session next month, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein vowed on national television recently.

“We’ve tried to take my bill from ’94 to 2004 and perfect it,” the California Democrat said on NBC's “Meet The Press."

Feinstein authored a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994, a ban that was allowed to expire by Congress during the George W. Bush administration. On NBC last week, Feinstein agreed with gun control proponent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said he wants “weapons of war off the streets of our cities.”

California’s senior senator said her lawyers have carefully crafted a constitutional bill that will “exempt over 900 specific weapons that will not ... fall under the bill.”  Feinstein has also promised to "grandfather in" weapons legally possessed on the date of the enactment.

Police have said the children killed in the Newtown, Conn. massacre were shot multiple times in rapid succession using an AR-15, an assault-type of rifle.

Meanwhile, the Press Democrat is reporting an increase in sales at North Bay gun shops in anticipation of a federal crackdown on assault weapons. 

“All you have to do is tell people that they can’t have it and they’ll want it,” one local gun shop owner told the paper. “They are nervous about having their rights taken away from them.”

Are you in favor of a federal ban on assault weapons? Why or why not?