The White House is still acting confident about passing an assault weapons ban despite Senate Democrats cutting the idea out of their proposed gun control legislation. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said, “We’re going to work on this. We’re going to find the votes. And it deserves a vote and let’s see if we can get it done.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had stated that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s proposed assault weapons bill was far short of the votes it needed: “Right now her amendment, using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes. I — that’s not 60.”
The White House has been downplaying the assault weapons ban, knowing it was headed for defeat. Joe Biden has said, “I’m much less concerned, quite frankly, about what you call an assault weapon than I am about magazines and the number of rounds that can be held in a magazine.”