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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0409150308sep15,1,67719.story
Daley, Blagojevich urge new gun ban
They want state to enact law on assault weapons
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First Midwest Bancorp
By Christi Parsons and Gary Washburn
Tribune staff reporters
September 15, 2004
The state's top two Democrats vowed Tuesday to push for a new state law banning assault weapons, a day after Congress allowed a 10-year federal ban to expire.
In separate public appearances, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Gov. Rod Blagojevich decried the failure of lawmakers to extend the ban and pledged to try to remedy it at the state level.
"It's a really sad day when you think America is allowing more and more types of assault weapons," said Daley, who tried to persuade members of congress to extend the ban. "I just don't understand it. I feel sorry for police officers in the line of duty all over this country, worried about whether or not someone is going to have an assault weapon."
President Bill Clinton signed the ban in 1994, but it was authorized to last only a decade unless Congress and the president acted to extend it. President Bush has said he would sign a bill to re-enact the law if Congress passed it, but the Monday deadline came and went without legislative action.
As a result, the measure, which outlawed 19 types of military-style assault weapons, ended on Monday.
On Tuesday, Blagojevich called the expiration a "terrible failure," and called on the Republican president to throw his weight around with GOP leaders of the House and Senate.
"President Bush has said publicly that he supports the assault-weapon ban," Blagojevich said. "He ought to use whatever influence he can in a congressional process that is controlled by his political party, and get an assault-weapon ban passed."
Blagojevich also said he would lead an effort to "do what we can here in Illinois during the veto session," but pointed out that passage won't be easy on his turf. Democrats dominate the Illinois Capitol, just as Republicans run the U.S. Congress.
"The political difficulty of that in Illinois is comparable to what it is in Washington because Illinois is a microcosm of America," the governor said.
Gun rights advocates predicted a state ban would fare as poorly in Illinois as have other gun control measures in recent years. Every year, Daley typically backs a package of gun control legislation in Springfield only to see it defeated by firearms-rights advocates.
"Daley came to Springfield and posed some very sweeping gun bans," said Todd Vandermyde, lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. "They've not passed either chamber in the past. I don't see much changing."
"A majority of the General Assembly does not believe in banning firearms from people who committed no crimes," Vandermyde said. "No matter how you dress it up, it's a gun ban, and that doesn't play well in this state."
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