Federal Assault Weapons Ban - Efforts To Renew The Ban

Efforts To Renew The Ban

Since the assault weapons ban expired on March 2, 2004, legislation to renew the ban has been proposed a number of times unsuccessfully.

On March 2, 2004, the Senate voted down the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (a bill to bar firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products) after a ten-year extension of the assault weapons ban was attached to it, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was subsequently passed in 2005 without an assault weapons renewal.

In the 108th Congress, Representative Carolyn McCarthy, Democrat of New York, introduced H.R. 2038, the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003, on May 8, 2003, before the assault weapons ban expired. It had 111 co-sponsors. The Bill would have renewed the assault weapons ban for an additional ten years and revise the definition of 'semiautomatic assault weapon'. The Bill never got out of committee to come up for a floor vote and died at the end of the 108th Congress.

In the 109th Congress, McCarthy reintroduced the same bill, on March 15, 2005. The Bill, H.R. 1312, the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2005, which had 94 co-sponsors, never got out of committee and died at the end of the 109th Congress.

In the 110th Congress, McCarthy reintroduced the same bill, on February 17, 2007. The Bill, H.R. 1022, the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007, which had 67 co-sponsors, never got out of committee and died at the end of the 110th Congress.

Shortly after the November 4, 2008 election, Change.gov, the website of the office of then President-Elect Barack Obama, listed a detailed agenda for the forthcoming administration. The stated positions included "making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent." This statement was originally published on Barack Obama's campaign website, BarackObama.com. The agenda statement later appeared on the administration's website, WhiteHouse.gov, with its wording intact. As of October 9, 2012, the statement appeared within the Urban Policy section of Change.gov, under the heading "Address Gun Violence in Cities".

Also in the 110th Congress, Representative Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, introduced a bill on June 12, 2008, to reinstate the assault weapons ban for ten years and expand the list of banned weapons. The Bill, H.R. 6257, the Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008, had four co-sponsors, all Republicans: Michael N. Castle of Delaware, Mike Ferguson of New Jersey, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, and Christopher Shays of Connecticut. The Bill never got out of committee and died at the end of the 110th Congress.

On February 25, 2009 newly sworn-in Attorney General Eric Holder repeated the Obama administration's desire to reinstate the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. The mention came in response to a question, about 20 minutes into a joint press conference with DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, discussing efforts to crack down on Mexican drug cartels. Attorney General Holder said: " there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons."