The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin to consider four separate gun safety measures on Thursday, although the process of narrowing actual legislative language will most likely dribble into next week.
Among the measures to be pondered is one that would reinstate the expired assault weapons ban and place limits on high-capacity magazines, offered by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. The notion of such a ban has been radioactive among Republicans and many Democrats, especially those up for re-election in conservative states in 2014.
Also under consideration is a bill sponsored by Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vemont and chairman of the committee, which would address the problem of illegal gun trafficking; a measure offered by Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, that would improve school safety; and a “placeholder†proposal concerning universal background checks written by Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, as he attempts to work out a bipartisan version with Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma and a staunch Second Amendment supporter. The talks betw! een Mr. Schumer and Mr. Coburn have stalled over a provision that would require records to be kept of private gun sales.
President Obama has asked Congress to take up measures that would create a universal background check system for gun sales and enhanced tools to stem “straw purchases†of guns for criminals who cannot pass background checks. He has also called for reinstating the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, and tightening limits on the capacity of some ammunition magazines, which, as its own measure, enjoys more support from lawmakers than an outright ban of assault weapons.
The growing consensus on Capitol Hill is that a bill that addresses only the improvements to the background check system has the best chance of reaching a bipartisan consensus, although the National Rifle Association, which once supported such a measure, is now opposed to one.
