Did you need any more evidence of the agenda of the Bush administration and congressional Republicans?
With time expiring on the decade-old assault weapons ban, gun control advocates are angry at President Bush for apparently doing nothing to extend it. In fact, the president never asked the House to continue the ban, which will expire in September, because he knew it was pointless, says Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
In his 2000 campaign, Bush said he favored extending the 1994 ban on 19 semiautomatic assault weapons. But now, “time is running out, and President Bush’s strategy is to remain silent,” said Michael Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a recent statement.
The Senate dropped efforts to extend the law in March, and the House never started. “We stated our position before the White House had to ask us,” DeLay told reporters last week. The White House “knew not to [ask], because the votes are not there.”
At the same news conference, DeLay took a different view on a proposed constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriages. The House will vote on the question in September, he said, even though many Republicans say they are not close to rounding up the 290 votes, or two-thirds majority, that a constitutional amendment requires. “We feel like marriage is under attack,” DeLay said, and amendment proponents can’t wait for a guaranteed victory.
