Evaluation-Why Biden pushes an assault weapons ban regardless of the political odds By Reuters

By Jeff Mason and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Flags are lowered, sorrowful statements are issued, pleas to lawmakers are made, once more.

Within the wake of two mass shootings in California this week, President Joe Biden has adopted a heartfelt and acquainted script of shock and grief over gun violence in America, coupled with a renewed name for Congress to cross laws banning assault-style weapons.

Such a ban has little probability of passing the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives or the Senate, which is narrowly managed by Democrats, political specialists say.

However Biden’s cussed technique continues: make a ban the main target of public discourse at any time when a mass taking pictures happens and put strain on lawmakers who oppose one. The White Home hopes to construct on already sturdy public assist for stricter gun security legal guidelines general, and finally attempt to strain Republicans in Congress into altering their pondering.

Biden personally provides mentions of an assault weapons ban to his deliberate public remarks, a White Home official mentioned.

This week, after 18 individuals have been killed over two days in California, the president requested lawmakers to ship a invoice to his desk as rapidly as attainable.

“It is actually wanted badly,” he instructed Democratic leaders at a gathering on Tuesday. “We’ll ban assault weapons once more,” he mentioned on Thursday at a Lunar New Yr reception on the White Home, to applause.

Republican opposition has not modified.

Senator John Cornyn, a senior Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has been distinguished throughout previous gun management debates, mentioned the California shootings had not altered the state of affairs on Capitol Hill. “There’s not going to be any additional legislative motion there. We just about exhausted the chances just a few months in the past,” he instructed Reuters.

The White Home says Biden won’t quit.

“The president’s technique has been to make an assault weapons ban a profitable concern so we will construct a pro-gun security Congress, and we’re making progress on that,” a second White Home official mentioned.

Biden’s technique could have longer-term political advantages going into the 2024 presidential election.

“I do suspect a part of Biden’s re-election plans over the following yr is to attempt to distinction himself as a reasonable, centrist, pragmatic determine versus the extremes,” mentioned Dante Scala, a political science professor on the College of New Hampshire.

SIMPLE MATH, NOT ENOUGH SUPPORT

A decade after 20 first-graders and 6 adults have been killed within the Sandy Hook elementary faculty bloodbath, the U.S. federal authorities has put few limits on weapons just like the high-capacity AR-15 used within the assault, or on the estimated 400 million weapons within the nation. Over 150 rounds have been fired in simply 5 minutes on the faculty, investigators mentioned.

The latest shootings in California, which killed 18 individuals, present how even the strictest state legal guidelines might be ineffective due to a patchwork of federal regulation.

Biden has railed in opposition to assault-style weapons for years and repeatedly all through his presidency. He was instrumental in getting a decade-long ban handed in 1994.

As vp, he spearheaded a set of gun management proposals for Barack Obama after Sandy Hook that included a advice for a brand new assault weapons ban. None handed Congress, opposed by Republicans and the then-powerful Nationwide Rifle Affiliation foyer.

Final yr, nonetheless, Biden signed into legislation the primary main federal gun reform in three a long time. It cracks down on general gun gross sales to perpetrators of home violence and expands some background checks to juveniles.

These and even stricter measures have sturdy public assist.

A June Quinnipiac ballot confirmed practically three out of 4 People assist elevating the age at which an individual can purchase a gun to 21, and 92 p.c supported background checks for all gun patrons.

Nevertheless the Quinnipiac and different polls present that almost half of People assist an assault weapons ban.

To cross one, the president would wish 60 votes within the Senate – 10 Republicans and all 50 Democrats and independents – and a easy majority of 218 votes within the Home, which has 222 Republicans and a Republican speaker, who must consent to bringing a invoice to the ground for a vote.

The June legislation received assist from 14 Republicans within the Home and 15 within the Senate, after mass shootings in Texas and New York killed greater than 30 individuals, together with 19 kids at an elementary faculty.

The U.S. Structure’s Second Modification protects the appropriate to bear arms, and that concern is a sizzling button one for a lot of Republicans, and backed by tens of millions in donations from gun rights teams and producers.

“Violent crime is on the rise and the individuals are anxious for options. However as an alternative of setting an apparent course – like truly punishing the offenders or addressing our woefully insufficient psychological well being system – the President is trying to resurrect an initiative that had zero impact on violent crime,” mentioned NRA spokesperson Lars Dalseide.

The White Home factors to statistics, together with from College of Massachusetts researcher Louis Klarevas, that present gun massacres sank 37 p.c and gun bloodbath deaths dropped 43 p.c in the course of the 10-year interval of the assault rifle ban, in comparison with the earlier decade.

Despite the fact that an all-out assault weapons ban appears unlikely, a really skinny Republican majority within the Home signifies that one thing extra modest, akin to elevating the age to 21 to purchase assault weapons, might be attainable, the College of New Hampshire’s Scala mentioned.

Advocates say the White Home has different choices it might pursue to scale back gun violence even when Congress does nothing for 2 years, from government motion to budgeting to enforcement of current legal guidelines.

Biden’s group says it’s cognizant of the political odds.

“Our job is to maintain attempting. The president goes to maintain utilizing the bully pulpit, maintain pursuing government motion, maintain constructing on the laws he bought executed final summer time, and maintain going,” the second White Home official mentioned.