Four days after the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX, Senate Democrats have introduced another bill to ban assault weapons. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is leading the charge.
JUST IN: Sen. Feinstein and Senate Democrats introduce bill to ban assault weapons pic.twitter.com/d94tkH6ASo
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) November 8, 2017
The last assault weapons ban, enacted in 1994, expired in 2004.
In a companion tweet, Feinstein listed a number of recent mass shootings from the past few years to add urgency to their bill.
San Bernardino. Aurora. Newtown. Roseburg. Orlando. Las Vegas. Sutherland Springs. These mass shootings all involved military-style assault weapons. It's past time to remove weapons of war from our streets.
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) November 8, 2017
Feinstein and her colleagues may believe they have found the culprit, but President Trump and other leading Republicans would be quicker to say the killer's mental health condition is to blame, not the tool he used for his crimes. Since Sunday, we've learned that the killer, Devin Kelley, had escaped a mental institution in 2012 and was court martialed while serving in the Air Force for a record of domestic abuse. The Air Force failed to enter the domestic violence case into the National Criminal Information Center database, which could explain why he was still able to buy a gun.
The Democrats' gun control agenda is unlikely to gain much support from law abiding gun owners. Rep. Henry Cuellar (R-TX), whose district includes Sutherland Springs, noted that Sunday's massacre won't change his constituents minds' on guns.
“The Second Amendment is very strong and will remain strong there,” he told reporters Wednesday.
Cuellar is, however, working with his colleague Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on legislation that would strengthen background checks.