Scott Powers
Undeterred by the fact that every other gun bill considered in the past three weeks has been shot down, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson introduced another Friday, seeking to reinstitute the assault weapon ban that was in place from 1994-2004.
Grayson, the Orlando Democrat running for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida, said he would push the bill the way he’s pushed another legislation he was able to pass, meeting with individual members of Congress to appeal to them one-on-one, following the June 12 mass killing at Orlando’s popular gay nightclub, Pulse.
His bill, which he dubbed the “Freedom From Fear” bill, reinstates two sections of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. One section restricts the manufacturing and possession of certain semi-automatic weapons. The other lists the weapons included in the ban.
Grayson argued the 1994 ban worked, cutting the number of mass shootings by two-thirds in the period of 1995-2004.
“It was the weapon that made this possible,” Grayson stated in a news release issued by his congressional office. “You can’t always know what is in people’s heads, we can’t always know what’s in people’s hearts, but we can know, and we do know what’s in people’s hands. That’s why I think we have to go back and re-institute the assault weapons ban.”
