Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) shot back late Tuesday at the notion her federal assault weapons ban bill was doomed after Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided against including it in a base bill of gun control measures.
“This is very important to me and I’m not gong to lay down and play dead,” she said on CNN. “I think the American people have said in every single public poll that they support this kind of legislation.”
Reid earlier Tuesday said the Senate would vote on Feinstein’s bill as an amendment to the broader gun-reform package, but that it would not be packaged with some of the less-controversial measures that deal with increasing school safety, and cracking down on straw purchasers.
Reid defended the decision to reporters, predicting Feinstein’s legislation wouldn’t pull a majority even in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
“Right now, her amendment, using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes," he said. "That’s not 60. I have to get something on the floor so we can have votes on that issue and the other issues we talked about."
Still, Feinstein said Reid assured her the bill would be put up for a vote.
“What Sen. Reid told me was that I would have the opportunity for a vote. I take him at his word,” she said.
“It came out on a 10 to eight vote in the Judiciary Committee, and not to give me a vote on this would be a major betrayal of trust,” she added.
Feinstein argued that her assault weapons ban legislation that expired in 2004 took the same path as her current legislation.
“If it’s an amendment, it’s not a symbolic vote,” she said. “I did the bill in 1994 on the floor as an amendment. It was enacted there, it went on the House, and it was enacted there.”
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