......"Further complicating the legislative situation was Thursday's introduction in the House of an even stricter assault-weapons ban proposal by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y. Their bill, patterned after California's 1999 law, would ban far more models of guns than Feinstein's bill.

Feinstein made her mark in Washington as a freshman senator by getting the ban passed against heavy odds after the July 1, 1993, shooting at 101 California St. in San Francisco left eight dead.


HUSBAND SHOT TO DEATH
McCarthy was elected to the House in 1996 on a strong gun-control platform. Her husband was killed and her son seriously injured by a gunman on the Long Island Railroad in 1993.

But Feinstein warned Thursday that gun control advocates could jeopardize passage -- and Bush's signature -- of any renewal legislation by pushing the tougher Conyers-McCarthy bill.

Feinstein's bill banned guns that met two out of a long list of physical characteristics. Since 1994, many manufacturers have changed the guns' features to keep them legal. The Conyers-McCarthy bill moves more toward blocking the manufacture of weapons with a single banned characteristic.

"If I thought I could, I'd introduce a bill that would go from banning weapons with two of the banned characteristics to just one. But we don't have the support for it, and we'd lose the entire bill," Feinstein said.

However, Kristen Rand of the Violence Prevention Center said the Feinstein bill had been ineffective, mainly because it resulted in gunmakers altering their weapons to get around the ban.

"If we want to ban assault weapons, we have to come close to the Conyers- McCarthy bill," said Rand, who said the House bill had 65 co-sponsors, including one Republican, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.

Rand said that "post-ban" assault weapons models were "flooding the civilian market."

But Feinstein said the way to toughen the existing law is through the ammunition-clip import ban. It would ban the import of any clip of more than 10 bullets. The current law bans domestic manufacture, but since 1994, more than 50 million high-volume clips have been imported....."


CRC

Ban the clips.  I don't care.  I load my 30-round magazines by hand!

^^^
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[shock]

Feinstein is advocating the incremental approach. But do this bill seriously though folks. Think how long it took the anti-gun crowd to pass the Brady Law and the AWB. For anybody that don't remember it is something like ten years.

I love seeing the enemy fight among themselves.

Ditto. And that is exactly what will continue to happen in the D ranks as legislators are forced to choose between the Constitution, public opinion, and the vocal extremist minority in their own party.

I think I could live without "30-bullet clips," as long as they let me keep my "30-round magazines." [rolleyes]

Bingo!