HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 (AWB 2013) was a bill introduced in the
113th United States Congress The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Barack Obama's presidency. It was composed of the ...
as by Senator
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
, D-CA, on January 24, 2013, one month after the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and th ...
. It was defeated in the Senate on April 17, 2013 by a vote of 40 to 60.


Background

Efforts to create a new federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB 1994) were renewed on December 14, 2012, when 20 children and six adults were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Connecticut Newtown is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of the Greater Danbury metropolitan area as well as the New York metropolitan area. Newtown was founded in 1705, and later incorporated in 1711. As of the 2020 c ...
. At the time, it was the deadliest
shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles c ...
to occur at a primary or secondary school, the second-deadliest
mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 200 ...
by a single person, and one of the 25 deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. Within hours of the shooting, a We the People user started a petition asking the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...
to "immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress." That afternoon, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
made a televised statement offering condolences on behalf of the nation to Connecticut governor,
Dannel Malloy Dannel Patrick Malloy (; born July 21, 1955) is an American politician, who served as the 88th governor of Connecticut from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he chaired the Democratic Governors Association from 2016 to 2017. On Ju ...
and saying, "we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics." Speaking at a December 16 memorial service in Newtown, Obama said he would "use whatever power this office holds" to prevent similar tragedies. By December 17, the White House petition had more than 150,000 signatures, and one week after the shooting it had almost 200,000, along with those on 30 similar petitions. On December 21, 2012, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), expressed the gun-rights group's sympathy for the families of Newtown. He said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," and that debating legislation that won't work would be a waste of time. Feinstein and Senator
Richard Blumenthal Richard Blumenthal (; born February 13, 1946) is an American lawyer and politician who is the senior United States senator from Connecticut, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he is one of the wealthiest members of ...
, D-CT, held a separate news conference in response to LaPierre's. There, Feinstein said that the bill was a work in progress and that one idea was to register grandfathered assault weapons under the
National Firearms Act The National Firearms Act (NFA), 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, was enacted on June 26, 1934, and currently codified and amended as . The law is an Act of Congress in the United States that, in general, imposes an excise tax on the manufactu ...
(NFA) and another was a buy-back program. A December 26, two-page bill summary on the senator's web site also mentioned registering grandfathered assault weapons under the NFA, but not a buy-back program. (Neither proposal appeared in the text of the bill introduced to the Senate.) On January 16, 2013, Obama announced a plan for reducing gun violence in four parts, one of which was banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The plan included 23 executive orders, signed immediately by the president, and 12 proposals for Congress, including reinstating and strengthening the ban on assault weapons that was in place from 1994 to 2004, and limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds. The proposals were opposed by the NRA and the
National Shooting Sports Foundation The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is an American national trade association for the firearms industry that is based in Newtown, Connecticut. Formed in 1961, the organization has more than 8,000 members: firearms manufacturers, distri ...
(NSSF), and opposition was expected by legislators of both parties.


Introduction of the bill, and debate

On January 24, 2013,
Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she was ...
and 24 Democratic cosponsors introduced , the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, into the
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
. The bill was similar to the 1994 federal ban, but differed in that it used a one-feature test for a firearm to qualify as an
assault weapon In the United States, ''assault weapon'' is a controversial term used to define firearms with specified characteristics. The definition varies among regulating jurisdictions, but usually includes semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magaz ...
rather than the two-feature test of the 1994 ban. Such a move would deter the average gun owner from wanting to purchase a neutered rifle. In addition, it banned: the sale, transfer, importation or manufacture of about 150 named firearms; firearms with thumbhole
stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which owners ...
s and bullet buttons; the importation of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines; and high-capacity ammunition magazines (defined as those capable of holding more than 10 rounds). It would grandfather in weapons legally owned on the day of enactment and exempt more than 2,000 specific firearms "used for hunting or sporting purposes." On March 14, 2013, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill, though it was expected not to clear the full Senate. (Had the bill passed in the Senate, it was not expected to pass in the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ca ...
.)


Advocacy

The NRA's reaction to the proposed bill was swift. Its Institute for Legislative Action division started a "Stop The Gun Ban" campaign before the legislation was introduced in the Senate, asking its members to call their representatives and urge them to oppose the ban. Gun Owners of America (GOA) asked its members to do the same. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence issued a press release in support of the bill.


Public opinion

A ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
''/ Gallup poll conducted days after the shooting showed that public support for strengthening gun laws rose 15 percent compared to a similar poll in 2011. A law banning assault weapons was opposed by 51 percent of Americans, but one banning
high-capacity magazine A high-capacity magazine (or large-capacity magazine) is a magazine capable of holding more than the usual number of rounds of ammunition for a particular firearm. A magazine may also be defined as high-capacity in a legal sense, based on the nu ...
s (defined by the poll as those capable of holding more than 10 rounds) was supported by 62 percent of Americans.


Defeat of the bill and aftermath

In March 2013, Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senat ...
decided to leave the proposed ban out of the broader gun control bill, saying that it was unlikely to win 40 votes in the 100-member chamber and that it would jeopardize more widely supported proposals. On the morning of April 17, 2013, Feinstein displayed on the Senate floor a blow-up of a ''New York Daily News'' front page with photos of the 20 dead Sandy Hook Elementary School children and the headline, "Shame on U.S." Before the vote, she said to her colleagues, "Show some guts." However, as expected, S. 150, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, failed on a vote of 40 in favor to 60 in opposition. It was supported by Democrat Reid and Republican Senator
Mark Kirk Mark Steven Kirk (born September 15, 1959) is a retired American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Illinois from 2010 to 2017, and as the United States representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district ...
, but 15 Democrats, one
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
, and all the Republicans except Kirk voted against the ban. After the vote, Feinstein said that Congress' failure to pass the law would lead a number of states passing their own assault weapons bans. She vowed to keep trying, and said "I believe the American people are far ahead of their elected officials on this issue."


Criticisms of the bill

Critics of the bill said there were over 100 million "high-capacity magazines" (as defined by the bill) already in circulation in the United States. They also said that very few of these magazines were registered and a ban like this would be ineffective in keeping these magazines out of criminal hands.


References


Further reading

* Series started after Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. * * * * * *{{cite news , title=Bloomberg: Gun control should be Obama's 'number one agenda' , last=Sullivan , first=Sean , url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/12/16/bloomberg-gun-control-should-be-obamas-number-one-agenda/ , newspaper=Washington Post , date=December 16, 2012 Gun politics in the United States United States federal firearms legislation