The only thing politicians could offer the dead in Newtown, the anguished survivors and the rest of the country longing for a change is this lame excuse: Because of politics, we can’t pass an assault weapons ban.
Amid outrage from Connecticut to Colorado, Senate leaders circled the wagons Wednesday around Majority Leader Harry Reid, insisting he was simply responding to political reality when he announced Tuesday that he would allow the ban to die.
Reid’s decision to yank the measure bill barely three months after the slaughter, left gun control advocates stunned and saddened.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Theresa Hoover, 45, who lost son A.J. Boik in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre that left 12 dead and 58 injured. “It makes no sense to me. Not enough votes? I don’t understand how they can act like they care and then turn around and do something like that.”
Reid said he had no choice but to strip a ban on high-powered assault rifles and high-capacity magazines from gun control legislation that’s advancing in the Senate because opposition to that proposal could have doomed the rest of the gun control package — most notably a measure to tighten background checks on would-be gun buyers.
But background check legislation is also in jeopardy, with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) still looking for a second Republican senator to help him shepherd the legislation into law.
Reid (D-Nev.) had little to say Wednesday when shown the Daily News front page blasting politicians for caving to the nation’s gun lobby on assault weapons.
Ignoring the “SHAME ON U.S.” headline, the five-term senator announced he was “not doing press this morning” — after attending a bipartisan Capitol prayer breakfast.
Minutes later, Reid offered a weak defense of his decision to bury the proposed legislation vehemently opposed by the powerful National Rifle Association.
“It is coming to the floor,” he said, a reference to the bill’s new life as a toothless amendment destined to fail.
Asked what message the move sent to the 26 devastated families of Newtown victims, a Reid spokesman declined to answer specifically.
“The assault weapons ban is going to get a vote, just like Reid always said it would,” said spokesman Adam Jentleson.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ban’s sponsor, will now offer the abandoned bill as a doomed amendment.
It’s a stark contrast from the swell of support that seemed to emerge for stronger gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre where 20 first-graders and six adults were murdered with an AR-15 assault rifle.
More than 140,000 Daily News readers signed petitions calling for a ban on assault weapons and President Obama, in an impassioned Feb. 10 speech, promised a push for the ban.
The core parts of the remaining bill expected to reach a Senate vote next month are the background checks and a measure to make it a federal crime to purchase a gun for someone else.
Washington insiders expect that the House, pressured by the passage of bills in the Senate, would approve the package.
But the status of the background checks boosted by Schumer is still up in the air.
The New York Democrat has already lined up Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) to back the bill, but believes he needs a second GOP senator’s backing. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) is now negotiating on Schumer’s behalf with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
Coburn said Wednesday that he does not expect a deal this week, but suggested one was possible during the upcoming two-week Senate recess.
The sides remain divided over how to deal with records from background checks. Schumer and Democrats say they need the records to enforce the law and prosecute people caught lying while buying guns.
Many Republicans argue keeping records could create a national gun registry that they fear could eventually allow mass confiscation of weapons.
Top Democrats defended Reid’s choice, with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) insisting his colleague made the right call on the weapons ban.
“What he’s doing is reflecting the reality that you need 60 votes to open the debate,” said Durbin. “. . . If you leave the assault weapons ban in the bill, can you get the 60 votes?”
He added that newspaper headlines criticizing Reid were “unfair.”
And while Americans may have been surprised to hear that the Senate was essentially abandoning a centerpiece of the legislation proposed in the wake of Newtown, several senior Senate aides said it was no surprise on Capitol Hill.
“There was no news,” said one top Democratic staffer. “This was always the plan.”
It seemed like a lame response to Erin Nikitchyuk, 44, whose son Bear survived the Newtown killings.
“The politicians should have to show where they stand on the assault weapons ban,” she said Wednesday. “They should have to acknowledge that this is a big enough question to be worth debate.”
The White House says all is not lost on the assault weapons ban.
“We’re going to find the votes. And it deserves a vote and let’s see if we can get it done,” an Obama spokesman said.
Hoover said the senators and representatives voting on the gun control package can’t understand the impact of the mass killings on family, friends and neighbors.
“Until you experience the tragedy, you’re not going to understand the pain,” she said Wednesday. “But I can only do so much. Unfortunately, it takes a whole group of people to keep pushing it.”
Hoover said news of the ban’s demise made her feel tired — but promised to keep on fighting.
“I guess we didn’t just push enough,” she said. “We have to keep pushing and fighting. Because there’s no need for assault weapons to be out there.
“They’re clearly not made for hunting Bambi. It’s not a sportsman’s gun. It’s a killer’s gun.”
dbeekman@nydailynews.com, lmcshane@nydailynews.com and dfriedman@nydailynews.com
