[Webleymkv]

Originally posted by Technosavant

I really don't think we can assume this one is going to be party line split one way or the other. Some Republicans will certainly support a ban, some Democrats will certainly fight one.

That's, in essence, what I was saying. Neither party can really do much of anything right now without at least some support of the other due to the split in control of the House and Senate. Even if every single congressional Democrat voted for a new AWB, which is highly unlikely, it would still need some Republican support since that party controls the House. The point of my earlier comments was that if President Obama wanted to gather bipartisan support for a new AWB, which he would have to in order to get one passed, I think there would be much more effective people to convince Republicans and moderate-to-conservative Democrats to do so than Joe Biden.

I simply find it odd that the President would suddenly choose Joe Biden to spearhead an important part of his agenda because, thus far, that has not been Biden's role within the administration. As I think back over Obama's first term, every single important part of his agenda including the automotive bailouts, financial regulation, debt limits, and foreign policy has been spearheaded by the President himself, other members of the cabinet such as the Attorney General or Secretary of State, or prominent congressional Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Thus far, Biden's only newsworthy role has been the traditional VP role of campaign attack dog. It just seems strange to me that the President would suddenly change up his roster if gun control were as important to him as the media would have us believe.

Originally posted by Al Norris

While not yet introduced, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) has signaled he has legislation ready that is "popular among members of the National Rifle Association (NRA)."

From poll data (by Frank Luntz), Rep. Moran has found that


Quote:
• 74 percent of NRA members support criminal background checks on all potential gun buyers — as opposed to current law, which requires background checks only on those who buy from licensed gun dealers;

• 79 percent of NRA members back requiring gun retailers to perform background checks on all employees;

• 71 percent of NRA members would bar those on the FBI's terrorist watch-list from buying and owning guns;

• 64 percent of NRA members support requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms.

I'd very much like to see Luntz's data, but given the criticisms he's recieved from the AAPOR, National Council on Public Polls, Media Matters, and PolitiFact, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Add to this that there is a push to bring forward HR 308 (which has been sitting in limbo since Jan. 2011, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D-NY4]), a magazine limit/ban bill and a new bill, HR 6680 (Bobby Rush [D-IL1]) that would purportedly register "certain firearms" (the text is not yet available).

That's not surprising as I would classify both McCarthy and Rush as "usual suspects" when it comes to gun control.