Obama stands firm on gun control despite long odds

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama greets law enforce­ment offi­cers after speak­ing on ideas to reduce gun vio­lence, Mon­day at the Min­neapo­lis Police Depart­ment Spe­cial Oper­a­tions in Min­neapo­lis, Minn. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Pablo Mar­tinez Monsivais)

JULIE PACE

NEDRA PICKLER

Asso­ci­ated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — Pres­i­dent Barack Obama declared Mon­day on his first trip out­side Wash­ing­ton to pro­mote gun con­trol that a con­sen­sus is emerg­ing for uni­ver­sal back­ground checks for pur­chasers, though he con­ceded a tough road lay ahead to pass an assault weapons ban over for­mi­da­ble oppo­si­tion in Congress.

“We should restore the ban on military-style assault weapons and a 10-round limit for mag­a­zines,” Obama said in a brief speech, stand­ing firm on his full pack­age on gun-control mea­sures despite long odds. Such a ban “deserves a vote in Con­gress because weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our schools or threat­en­ing our law enforce­ment officers.”

The pres­i­dent spoke from a spe­cial police oper­a­tions cen­ter in a city once known to some as “Mur­der­apo­lis” but where gun vio­lence has dropped amid a push to address it from city lead­ers. Offi­cers stood behind him, dressed in crisp uni­forms of blue, white and brown.

The site con­veyed Obama’s mes­sage that a reduc­tion in vio­lence can be achieved nation­ally, even if Amer­i­cans have sharp dis­agree­ments over gun con­trol. That includes among mem­bers of his own party in Washington.

Sug­gest­ing he won’t get all he’s propos­ing, he said, “We don’t have to agree on every­thing to agree it’s time to do something.”

The pres­i­dent unveiled his gun-control plans last month after the shoot­ings at a New­town, Conn., ele­men­tary school. But many of the pro­pos­als face tough oppo­si­tion from some in Con­gress and from the National Rifle Association.

Demo­c­ra­tic Sen­ate Major­ity Leader Harry Reid has said he wants to give the bans on assault weapons and high-capacity mag­a­zines a vote. But he will not say whether he will sup­port either, and advo­cates and oppo­nents alike pre­dict they are unlikely to pass.

Putting the con­tro­ver­sial mea­sures up for a vote could put some Demo­c­ra­tic sen­a­tors in a tough spot. That includes some from conservative-leaning states who are up for re-election next year and face the prospect of vot­ing against either fer­vent gun-rights sup­port­ers or Obama and gun-control sup­port­ers in the party’s base.

Reid him­self came in for crit­i­cism for declin­ing to stand with the pres­i­dent by Min­neapo­lis’ Demo­c­ra­tic mayor, R.T. Rybak, who accom­pa­nied Obama while he was in town. “He’s danc­ing around this issue and peo­ple are dying in this coun­try,” Rybak said of Reid on MSNBC.

Demo­c­ra­tic law­mak­ers and aides, as well as lob­by­ists, say an assault weapons ban has the least chance of being approved by the Sen­ate Judi­ciary Com­mit­tee that is work­ing up the leg­is­la­tion. They say a ban on high-capacity mag­a­zines is viewed as the next least likely pro­posal to sur­vive, though some com­pro­mise ver­sion of it might, allow­ing more than the 10-round max­i­mum that Obama favors.

Like­li­est to be included are uni­ver­sal back­ground checks and pro­hi­bi­tions against gun traf­fick­ing, they say. One lob­by­ist said other pos­si­ble terms include steps to improve record keep­ing on resales of guns and per­haps pro­vi­sions that would make it harder for men­tally ill peo­ple from obtain­ing firearms.

Asked last week what was likely to be in his committee’s bill, com­mit­tee Chair­man Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he didn’t yet know but “I don’t know how any­body can be opposed to uni­ver­sal back­ground checks.” He added, “I think gun traf­fick­ing, you’ve got to be able to close that. I don’t know how any­body, any­body can object to that.”

Obama also was more upbeat on the prospects of uni­ver­sal back­ground checks, includ­ing for pur­chases at gun shows.

“The good news is that we’re start­ing to see a con­sen­sus emerge about the action Con­gress needs to take,” he said. “The vast major­ity of Amer­i­cans, includ­ing a major­ity of gun own­ers, sup­port requir­ing crim­i­nal back­ground checks for any­one try­ing to buy a gun. There’s no rea­son why we can’t get that done.”

He urged Amer­i­cans to call their mem­bers of Con­gress to push for his entire pack­age of stronger gun con­trols. “Tell them now is the time for action.”

“Chang­ing the sta­tus quo is never easy,” Obama said. “This will be no excep­tion. The only way we can reduce gun vio­lence in this coun­try is if the Amer­i­can peo­ple decide it’s impor­tant, if you decide it’s impor­tant, if par­ents and teach­ers, police offi­cers and pas­tors, hunters and sports­men, Amer­i­cans of every back­ground stand up and say, this time, it’s got to be dif­fer­ent. We’ve suf­fered too much pain to stand by and do nothing.”

The White House says Obama is not writ­ing off any part of his pack­age despite the long odds for the assault weapons ban in par­tic­u­lar before votes are sched­uled or he takes his argu­ments on the road. Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Arne Dun­can, who has been help­ing push the gun con­trol pack­age, said he and Obama spoke on the mat­ter Sun­day and agreed that Wash­ing­ton in a vac­uum is unlikely to move quickly.

“If this is Wash­ing­ton try­ing to drive this by itself, it doesn’t go very far,” Dun­can said at a meet­ing with col­lege pres­i­dents who have signed on to help lobby Con­gress to take action to pro­tect students.

The White House said Obama made his maiden trip on the gun con­trol pack­age to Min­neapo­lis because the city has taken steps to tackle gun vio­lence, includ­ing a push for stricter back­ground checks. The city launched a pro­gram in 2008 aimed at pro­vid­ing more resources for at-risk youth and help­ing reha­bil­i­tate young peo­ple who have already com­mit­ted crimes.

In Jan­u­ary, Min­neapo­lis also hosted a regional sum­mit on gun vio­lence for elected offi­cials from around the Mid­west. The county’s sher­iff, Richard Stanek, is a Repub­li­can who has been work­ing with the White House to develop a palat­able set of gun reg­u­la­tions, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on strength­en­ing back­ground checks.

Ahead of Monday’s trip, the White House released a photo of the pres­i­dent skeet shoot­ing at Camp David, the pres­i­den­tial retreat, which prompted more ques­tion about the president’s expe­ri­ence with guns. White House press sec­re­tary Jay Car­ney said he was not aware of Obama per­son­ally own­ing any firearms. He said Obama has shot a gun else­where, although he didn’t know when or if he had done so– before becom­ing pres­i­dent. “He never intended to sug­gest he had grown up as a hunter,” Car­ney said.

Asked whether the pres­i­dent shoots skeet or trap, Car­ney told reporters, “I’m not an expert, and I don’t think he would claim to be either.” But he said of the president’s shoot­ing skill, “I think he has got­ten better.”

On Tues­day, four House mem­bers — two Repub­li­cans and two Democ­rats — planned to announce bipar­ti­san leg­is­la­tion mak­ing gun traf­fick­ing a fed­eral crime and strength­en­ing penal­ties against peo­ple who legally buy firearms but give them to oth­ers who are barred from pur­chas­ing them, such as felons.

House GOP lead­ers have sent no sig­nals that they intend to move immi­nently on gun legislation.

“The com­mit­tees of juris­dic­tion will look at the issues sur­round­ing vio­lence in our soci­ety. And when the Sen­ate pro­duces a bill, we’ll take a look at it,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Posted by AP News on Feb 4 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.