President Obama and the Democrats see an opportunity here with the GOP still reeling from the fiscal cliff foolishness and the new 113th Congress just seated
to pivot to new gun control laws.
While the fiscal cliff has dominated Washington’s attention in recent
weeks, lawmakers and activists are laying the groundwork for their big
push. Vice President Joe Biden, tasked with heading a commission to
investigate gun violence, has been quietly meeting with experts,
interest groups, and public officials and is expected to release a set
of recommendations within weeks. Boston mayor Thomas Menino, co-chair of
Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the Boston Herald this week that an optimistic Biden had assured him that Obama would sign legislation “by the end of January.”
“We had been led to believe their report would come by end of
January, but we’re hearing they may want to have something out by
January 15, even quicker than expected,” Mark Glaze, director of Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, told TPM.
House Democrats are moving ahead with their own plans as well. On
Friday, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), chair of the newly created Gun
Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the appointment of 12 vice
chairs, including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the body’s leading voice
on gun control. According to a Democratic aide, the group plans to
release its recommendations in early February and is already organizing
public hearings on the issue.
Obama has personally identified
an assault weapons ban and limits on ammunition magazine size as top
priorities. Other possible reforms could include background check
requirements for purchases at gun shows, a loophole that’s helped create
a huge market of off-record arms purchases.
In addition to public hearings and new legislation, Vice President Biden's task force and a big push from gun control groups, the United States Conference of Mayors in DC later this month is expected to be a pretty big platform for the country's mayors to have a say in the matter.
We'll see what becomes of this blitz, but I'm betting this will dominate the news starting next week,
especially given today's latest shooting tragedy in Aurora, Colorado.
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