Alphecca

SFGATE Sobs for Feinstein

Poor Diane Feinstein, according to this SF Gate story she's swimming upstream against the huge currents of NRA lobbying:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein knows the odds are increasingly daunting as she tries to win congressional renewal of her 10-year-old assault weapons ban before it expires Sept. 13, and she warns that if the law lapses "you can expect the market to become flooded'' with such guns as AK-47s and Uzis...
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..."I really believe passionately in this,'' Feinstein said in an interview about her bid for the renewal. "I'm not going to give up.''

Feinstein won a momentary victory on March 2 when the Senate voted 52-47 to adopt the renewal as an amendment to a gun manufacturers' liability shield legislation backed by the National Rifle Association. But the NRA scuttled the entire bill when it told its supporters that it didn't want the liability shield, which was the industry's main legislative goal for the year, to pass with Feinstein's assault ban amendment.

Feinstein is searching for another piece of legislation to serve as a vehicle for her amendment, which bans the manufacture and sale of 19 types of semiautomatic weapons and ammunition clips of more than 10 rounds. But there are only about 20 legislative days left in Congress before Sept. 13, and even if the bill passes the Senate, the House Republican leadership has said it won't allow the renewal to come up for a floor vote.

The NRA and other elements of the powerful gun lobby say the Feinstein's assault weapons ban has been ineffective and violates what they consider Americans' Second Amendment rights to own guns. The groups have lobbied vehemently to keep the legislation from reaching the floor.

You never read the SF Gate, when reporting on other issues, referring to the NEA as "the powerful teacher's lobby" or AARP as "the powerful senior citizen's lobby." But whenever newspapers like this report on the NRA, suddenly there's the intonation that they have too much power or influence. I call that bias.