Sen. Feinstein no longer has concealed weapon permit

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) no longer has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Feinstein, who has taken the lead on efforts to renew a federal assault weapons ban, acknowledged during a hearing in 1995 of previously having a concealed weapon permit.

At the time, she said she needed it for security, but she has since dropped the permit.

"The senator does not have a concealed weapon permit," Feinstein spokesman Tom Mentzer said in an email to The Hill on Thursday.

In 1995 a hearing on terrorism after the Oklahoma City bombing, Feinstein recounted how, in the 1970s, she was the target of the New World Liberation Front which first attempted to blow up her home. After the bomb failed to detonate, Feinstein explained, she decided to arm herself.

"Later the same group shot out all the windows of my home and I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself, because that’s what I did. I was trained in firearms," Feinstein said in the 1995 hearing.

"When I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick, I carried a concealed weapon," she said. "I made the determination that if somebody was going to try to take me out I was going to take them with me. Now having said all of that, that was a period of time ago and I’ve watched through these 20 years as terrorism has increased both on the far extremist left and the far extremist right in this country."

Feinstein got rid of the permit once the New World Liberation Front was no longer a threat to her.

Feinstein has pledged to introduce legislation reinstating the federal assault weapons band in the wake of the murders last week of 20 school children and six of their guardians at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

She is one of a number of legislators, including a few senators with "A" ratings from the National Rifle Association (NRA), who have called for action on guns in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. Feinstein has an "F" rating from the NRA.

A previous federal ban on weapons lapsed after ten years in 2004. Feinstein was a leading sponsor of the first ban.

Feinstein's new bill would ban “the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession" of certain types of guns as well as prohibit bullet clips, drums, and strips that carry more than 10 bullets.

"I don't see how Americans can want a situation where a 20-year-old gets a gun from his mother, kills his mother," Feinstein said Monday referring to the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza.

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