Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. visited with Senate Democrats on Thursday to encourage them to support President Obama’s agenda to curb gun violence, and insisted that the administration would continue to push renewal of an assault weapons ban even though such a measure faces considerable odds on Capitol Hill.
A day after the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine what, if any, measures could receive enough votes to pass both chambers of Congress, Mr. Biden said that the point of view on guns had been indelibly altered by themass shooting in Newtown, Conn., last month.
“There are things that we can do â€" demonstrably can do â€" that have virtually zero impact on your Second Amendment right to own a weapon for both self-defense and recreation that can save some lives,†Mr. Biden told reporters after a lunchtime meeting with Senate Democrats.
Mr. Biden said that he had met with scores of interest groups, from churches to gun rights organizations to law enforcement officials, and that he had seen a perceptible change in favor of some gun regulations. “The visual image of those 20 children being riddled with bullets†had traumatized the nation, he said.
