Congress unlikely to pass weapons ban, NRA chief says

WASHINGTON — The president of the National Rifle Association expressed confidence Sunday that the powerful gun lobby has enough support in Congress to block a law that would ban assault weapons, despite promises from the White House and senior lawmakers to make such a measure a reality.

Senators plan to introduce a bill that would limit sales of high-capacity ammunition clips and ban assault weapons like the one a gunman used in December to kill 26 people, most of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has promised to push for a renewal of expired legislation.

The National Rifle Association has so far prevented passage of another assault weapons ban like the one that expired in 2004. But some lawmakers say the Newtown tragedy has transformed the country, and Americans are ready for stricter gun laws.

President Barack Obama has made gun control a top priority. And this week Vice President Joe Biden is expected to give Obama a comprehensive package of recommendations for curbing gun violence.

Still, the NRA has faith that Congress would prevent a new weapons ban.

“When a president takes all the power of his office, if he’s willing to expend political capital, you don’t want to make predictions. You don’t want to bet your house on the outcome. But I would say that the likelihood is that they are not going to be able to get an assault-weapons ban through this Congress,” NRA president David Keene told CNN’s State of the Union.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., responded with a flat out “no” when asked on CBS’ Face the Nation whether Congress would pass a ban on assault weapons.

But Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., disagreed with Keene’s assessment that the current Congress would not take action on assault weapons.

“No, I think he’s wrong,” Murphy said on CNN. Saying that he believed such a ban would have prevented the massacre in Connecticut, Murphy said: “Newtown fundamentally changed things. The NRA doesn’t get this.”

The NRA’s deep pockets help bolster allies and punish lawmakers who buck them. The group spent at least $24 million in the 2012 elections - $16.8 million through its political action committee and nearly $7.5 million through its affiliated Institute for Legislative Action.

Separately, the NRA spent some $4.4 million through July 1 to lobby Congress. Keene insists the group represents its members and not just the gun manufacturers, though he said the NRA would like industry to contribute more money to the association.

“We know what works and what doesn’t work. And we’re not willing to compromise on people’s rights when there is no evidence that doing so is going to accomplish the purpose,” Keene said.

The NRA, instead, is pushing for measures that would keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, until a person gets better. “If they are cured, there ought to be a way out of it,” Keene said.

Currently, a person is banned from buying a gun from a licensed dealer if the person is a fugitive, a felon, convicted of substance abuse, convicted of domestic violence, living in the U.S. illegally or someone who “has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution.”

States, however, are inconsistent in providing information about mentally ill residents to the federal government for background checks. And, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said some 40 percent of gun sales happen with no background checks, such as at gun shows and by private sellers over the Internet or through classified ads.

Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a lifelong member of the NRA, has said everything should be on the table to prevent another tragedy like Newtown. But he assured gun owners he would fight for gun rights at the same time.

“I would tell all of my friends in NRA, I will work extremely hard and I will guarantee you there will not be an encroachment on your Second Amendment rights,” Manchin said on ABC’s This Week.

Manchin also said he would join McCain in seeking a bipartisan commission that would look for ways to address the nation’s “culture of violence.”

“It takes an all-in approach,” Manchin said. “You bring experts from all different fields. You bring people such as myself that are NRA members that have been sportsmen all of our lives, and look for a commonsense approach.”

Manchin said he and McCain will sponsor a bill taking up retired Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman’s push for a commission because looking more narrowly at guns, mental-health coverage or violent video games won’t “change the culture.”

Manchin, who opposes steps he views as curbing Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms, said requirements such as universal background checks for gun buyers have to be looked at within the all-inclusive approach he is advocating.

“If it’s all in one piece of legislation and one piece of legislation only, then you get something that’s much broader,” he said. Otherwise, it “is going to have a harder time getting through the political process we have right today.”

McCain backed Manchin’s view, saying an assault-weapons ban wouldn’t stop violence even if it did pass Congress.

“In Norway, a country with the most stringent gun laws, a guy was able to slaughter a huge number of people,” McCain said, referring to shooting and bomb attacks in that country that left 77 people dead in 2011. “So I think we need to look at it in its entirety. I think all of us should have this conversation.”

President Barack Obama has said he will address firearms violence in his State of the Union address, set for Feb. 12. Biden plans to deliver by Tuesday his recommendations for legislative and executive actions to stem gun violence.

Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Sullivan of The Associated Press; by Don Lee of the Tribune Washington Bureau; and by Shobhana Chandra and Lisa Lerer of Bloomberg News.