Sen. Dianne Feinstein to introduce assault weapons ban tomorrow to take 'weapons of war' off streets

Brett T. | 7:53 PM on January 23, 2013

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced in December, just three days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, that she’d be introducing in January a bill “to stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices” (or is it devises?).Tomorrow will be the day, as she and co-sponsor Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced tonight.

Tomorrow I will join @SenFeinstein to introduce a ban on assault weapons, inc the one that killed 26 people in #Newtown.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 23, 2013

Not surprisingly, opinion was split.

LOVE my senator! MT @SenFeinstein Tomorrow I'll introduce my assault weapons legislation. Weapons of war do not belong on our streets.

— Meg Yee (@meghanyee) January 24, 2013

@SenFeinstein Awesome! Don't pay any attention to the angry tweets you get from the less than well endowed males who will feel threatened.

— ResEdit (@ResEdit) January 24, 2013

@SenFeinstein Thank you, Sen Feinstein! So proud that you represent California.

— DeborahWhite (@DeborahWhite) January 24, 2013

@SenFeinstein Thank you. I hope you find a lot of support from your colleagues… you definitely have mine.

— Mary Freakin' Poppins (@rustystubbs) January 24, 2013

https://twitter.com/stop_guns/status/294243274846257154

The senators launched their effort with the #AWB2013 hashtag, but many saw the bill as only Assault Weapons Ban 2.0. Feinstein says the 2013 bill will strengthen the 1994 law in several ways:

Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test
Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test
Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans