Posted on 05/14/2003 2:32:06 PM PDT by Godebert
By JIM ABRAMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Bush should take the lead in overcoming resistance within his own party to extending an assault weapons ban due to expire next year, Democrats said Wednesday.
"If the bill dies we will lay it at the president's doorstep," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said a day after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told reporters that the 1994 law banning the manufacture of 19 types of common military-style assault weapons would not be renewed.
Schumer said the gun bill would be an issue in the 2004 election, a development that could pose problems for Democrats who represent districts with strong gun rights sentiment. The assault ban vote was also a campaign topic in 1994, the year Republicans recaptured the House after spending 40 years in the minority.
Bush, taking a position at odds with the National Rifle Association, has voiced support for extending the ban, and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on Wednesday said that support would carry weight in Congress.
"This is a matter that the House has to work out, of course, by listening to the will of its members, but the president's position is clear on it," Fleischer said. "When the president states his position like that, it helps get the message to the Congress."
Fleischer would not say whether Bush would pressure DeLay to bring such a bill up for a vote. DeLay, R-Texas, on Tuesday indicated that there would be no effort to renew the current law before it expires on Sept. 13, 2004. "The votes in the House are not there to reauthorize it," he said.
"The real question is will the president weigh in and ask the leaders to schedule a vote," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who as a senior adviser to President Clinton played a key role in guiding the 1994 legislation through Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...
To keep RATS away from positions of power so that a real turn against the nanny state can occur. This nanny state did not come into existence overnight, and it is absolutely stupid to believe that it can be done away with overnight. I don't think those who cry out the most about this president really want a president at all. They must want a dictator, because it will take a dictator to enact everything that they want (while totally ignoring the Congress) at the speed they want.
other than giving a pass to a republican president who has no regard for his Oath of Office or the Constitution?
Those are your words, not mine. No one can load my lips for me nor put words into my mouth.
It's the Americans like me who might make Bush think twice before he signs away our Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Narcissism, thy name is Godebert. "Americans like [you]" huh? Alrighy then...
Doing bad things to bad people...
I'm confident he won't get a chance to vote one way or another, because it won't pass the House...and Bush isn't going to try to push it through the House.
What I don't understand is the people castigating Bush on this site, for something that isn't going to happen.
Why should you even try to understand what the candy-assed S.W.M.s in the first place?
Ignore them. Let them stew in their own negativity.
Doing bad things to bad people...
Maybe not the sand but it is firmly up your sorry ass. That's for certain.
You sold out a long time ago.
Poof!
Doing bad things to bad people...
Thank you.
But I was able to post a link to what the then president of the NRA said also......and he said exactly what I said, that the NRA wasn't the least bit worried about this bill.
FYI....Wayne LaPierre is and was the Executive Vice President of the NRA. It's the part of your post where you claimed the president of the NRA called the membership "extremists" that we are waiting for a source.
I'm not the least bit worried about MY credibility when you are doing exactly what LaPierre said -- "making this about President Bush and the NRA."
You are the one making this about Bush and the NRA. I've said from the beginning that it is about Bush and his Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
The Democrats thank you for your work
Given that you hold many of their views, I can see how you feel qualified to offer their thanks.
True...and it's a waste of time trying to argue with FR's #1 troll...
3). Everybody look at me! I'm personally gonna save the Union. All that is good is my doing. Everything bad is Bush's doing. Look at me! Look at me!!!
Woke up? You were never mentally awake in the first place.
You can be blind, but not me.
Look here, tubby. You are no different than a 3 week old pup being walked for the first time. You're in Single-A right now. It's not time for you to step the the Bigs.
Ya dig?
Doing bad things to bad people...
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