Posted on 05/09/2004 3:47:41 PM PDT by yonif
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gun control supporters marched through Washington, D.C. on Sunday demanding that President Bush extend a federal ban on the sale of military-style assault rifles.
Several thousand protesters, organized by the same group that put together the Million Mom March in 2000, walked from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument chanting "Halt the assault."
At the head of the march, protesters held a banner depicting an AK-47 assault rifle, saying the president would be to blame for more violence unless he fulfilled a previous promise to sign an extension of the 1994 ban before it expires in September.
Gun control advocates said it would become easier for militant groups like al Qaeda to launch another attack inside the United States once the assault weapons ban expires.
"It is inconceivable at a time we have high terrorist alerts and homeland security that you would make available to the enemies of life and peace these high-powered rifles," civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson told the crowd in a speech immediately before the march.
The White House has said Bush would sign an extension of the ban if it were put before him by Congress, but he has not actively pushed for it.
Republican leaders in the House, meanwhile, have strongly opposed renewing the ban and have said they do not plan a vote on it.
Foes of the ban say it has not brought down violent crime. But such groups as the Fraternal Order of Police and the U.S. Conference of Mayors disagree, and have endorsed its extension.
At Sunday's Mother's Day march, Jackson and other gun-control advocates, from lawmakers and entertainers to shooting victims, urged supporters to pressure Congress to renew the ban.
"Every day that's what our military are using in the war in Iraq -- we need these guns on our streets? Are they crazy up there?" said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, gesturing toward the Capitol building.
McCarthy, a New York Democrat, was elected to Congress after her husband was killed and her son injured in a Long Island commuter train shooting in 1993.
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