As Congress inched closer to a vote on gun-control measures, Vice President
Biden and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday questioned lawmakers who
have been hesitant to get behind their push for sweeping changes.
After meeting in New York with Bloomberg and families and friends of several
victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., Biden
called on lawmakers to "show the courage" that victims of the Newtown tragedy
demonstrated.
"It must be awful to be in public office and concluding -- that even though you
might believe you should take action -- that you can't take action, because of
the political consequence you may face," Biden said. "What a heck of a way to
make a living."
Biden's comments came after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced
this week that he hoped to have a bill to address gun violence on the Senate
floor early next month. He said the broad package will not include the assault
weapons ban, a core element of President Obama's agenda to curb gun violence.
The ban is still likely to get a vote by the full Senate as an amendment to the
gun bill, but Reid said he counted only about 40 votes for it.
"Everyone is going to have to stand up and say yea or nay," said Bloomberg, an
active proponent of tighter gun control. He spent more than $2million of his own
money to defeat a pro-gun candidate in a special congressional election last
month in Illinois. "Then the rest of us have to decide just how we feel about
people and their stances."
While the White House and gun control advocates have made a hard push for the
assault weapons ban since the Dec. 14 tragedy at Newtown, the ban has been seen
as of less importance than winning approval for universal background checks.
Still, Biden, who has served as the point man in the public push for Obama's gun
agenda, has repeatedly pilloried gun rights advocates who have resisted
reinstituting the ban.
On Thursday, Biden said an assault weapons ban, which had been passed by
Congress in 1994 but expired in 2004, could have reduced the death toll in the
Sandy Hook incident that left 20 children and six adults dead. "For all those
who say we shouldn't and can't ban assault weapons ... how can they say that?
When you take a look at those 20 beautiful babies."
Biden, who was one the prime backers of the assault weapons ban when it passed
in 1994, suggested that the press for the ban will continue beyond next month's
expected votes. "I was told in 1992 that there was no way you would never beat
the gun lobby -- it was not possible," he said. "Well, in 1994, we did."
The National Rifle Association has fiercely opposed the administration's push to
revive the assault weapons ban. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said on
Thursday that his organization was not letting up in its push on lawmakers to
oppose the ban, despite the seeming long odds for it to become law.
"We are working real hard to make sure it doesn't pass, and that means in bill
form or in an amendment form," Arulanandam said. "We're dealing with an
administration that has two strident supporters of gun control at the top."
Vice President Biden, flanked by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, right, talks
about gun violence Thursday at New York City Hall.
