July 23, 2012 07:31 PM UTC

Perlmutter: Reinstate Assault Weapons Ban

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• by: Colorado Pols

CBS News, from Face the Nation yesterday:

Congressman Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., who represents Aurora, said gun laws must be addressed, including the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. However, he said this is not an issue for the president but for the Congress.

“You know, should we reinstate the assault weapons ban? I think we should, and I think that’s where it starts,” Perlmutter said on “Face the Nation.”

“We ought to be taking a look at how this guy was able to accumulate so much ammunition. He had enough ammunition for, like, a small army. There’s something wrong about that.”

The Wall Street Journal adds:

Earlier this month, [Joe] Coors was endorsed by the National Rifle Association, and Mr. Perlmutter has been a vocal opponent of so-called assault weapons. “Aurora may have been named one of the safest cities in the U.S. by Forbes magazine last year, but in the aftermath of the movie theater shooting that took 12 lives, gun control is obviously still an issue — one that’s near and dear to Perlmutter’s heart,” reports the Huffington Post. “The moderate Democrat first ran for Congress in 2006, pledging to support the revival of a federal assault weapons ban.”

Rep. Ed Perlmutter will be accused of using the movie theater shootings in Aurora last week for political purposes by swiftly calling for the reinstatement of the 1994 assault weapons ban. One of the three types of firearm used in the shootings was a semi-automatic rifle that may have been covered by the ban. But the truth is, as the WSJ notes above, that Rep. Perlmutter has sought to renew the assault weapons ban for as long as he’s been in Congress.

And it’s a little harder to argue against him today. A poll follows.

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