GOP Opposes Assault Gun Ban
Dan Amira, New York Magazine
hatever the new assault-weapons ban looks like, it's going to need Republican votes to pass both the House and the Senate. But, so far, Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to get onboard, despite the legislation's broad approval among the American people. Because we definitely need those guns, you guys, for ... well, nobody has really explained why, probably because there are just too many reasons.
The GOP isn't uniformly against the idea, however, as two Republican senators appear to support the measure. Indiana's Richard Lugar - who voted for the original ban in 1994 and proposed reinstating it after the Tuscon shooting - seems to support it still, obviously, telling Politico, "I think it's always appropriate [to talk about gun regulations], without knowing the contents of Sen. Feinstein's initiative, you are correct, I've supported assault ban legislation before."
And now Massachusetts's Scott Brown has made his support explicit as well. Unfortunately, both of these losers will be kicked out of the Senate in two weeks. And while Scott Brown has a good chance of returning later in 2013 if he runs for soon-to-be-Secretary of State John Kerry's seat, the vote on the assault-weapons ban is likely to take place long before then, and even if it doesn't, Brown's "yes" vote would simply replace Kerry's "yes" vote.
Which is all just an unnecessarily elaborate way of saying that nobody in the GOP who matters has yet backed an assault-weapons ban.