The assault weapons ban was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but is expected to die on the Senate floor because of Republican opposition.
WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee passed an assault weapons ban in a party line vote after an at times angry hearing in which Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., invoked her own experience with gun violence and lectured committee Republicans on the Constitution.
“I saw people shot” said Feinstein who was feet away from the famous 1978 assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and fellow Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk by another board member. Feinstein rarely speaks of the event, which made her the city’s mayor.
“I cannot get out of my mind walking into a crime scene and seeing brain matter all over,” she said.
The 10-8 vote came on the four month anniversary of the massacre in Newtown.
It may mark the high water mark for the proposal to ban hundreds of semi-automatic weapons opponents argue are meant for military use, not self-defense or recreation.
Committee Republicans unanimously opposed the proposal, and opposition from their party, along with that of some Democrats, is expected to sink the bill in the full Senate.
