Even as he issued multiple gun control directives in his second term,
President Barack Obama's promise to revive the federal assault weapons ban hit a wall with Congress.
Obama suggested reintroducing the ban during his 2012 re-election campaign. He had wanted legislation similar to the version in effect between 1994 and 2004, which had outlawed a broad range of semi-automatic weapons.
He included the ban as part of a
set of executive actions in January 2013, following the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., in December 2012.
Some lawmakers did take up the cause.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced
S. 150 in January 2013. Her bill would have banned the future sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of 157 semi-automatic weapons, as well as magazines that held more than 10 cartridges and other weapons with certain cosmetic characteristics. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also introduced
HR 4269 in December 2015.
Neither bill succeeded in the Republican-controlled Congress. Jaclyn Schildkraut, an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Oswego's Department of Public Justice, said that part of the reason was because the prior ban didn't stop mass shootings.
For example, one of the weapons used in the 1999 Columbine shootings, an IntraTec TEC-DC9, was on the list of banned guns, she said.
Stymied by gridlock and unable to order a ban on his own, Obama opted instead to strengthen current gun laws — a separate promise we've rated
Promise Kept.
As
some polls showed dwindling public support for an assault weapons ban, Obama
curbed his call for a ban. He still worked to strengthen background checks, restart federal gun research, and provide more resources to federal agencies.
Since no ban went anywhere in either the House or Senate, we rate this a Promise Broken.
