New Assault Weapons Ban Coming?

President-Elect Obama may move forward on an Assault Weapons/Magazine Capacity Ban ASAP — maybe as soon as later this January. Jim Shepherd at the SHOOTING WIRE is this morning also reporting similar rumors. This from Jim:

Despite the new administration’s insistence that jobs and the economy will be the top priority beginning January 20, insiders say payback to the NRA and other pro-Second Amendment groups is high on the agenda. Democratic advisors say the Republican party is “disorganized, disheartened, and dissolving” and it’s a good time for the incoming administration to take them on in a core issue – the assault weapons ban is one of three topics they’re evaluating.

If the AWB is chosen, everyone expects a pitched battle with no quarter given.

If the attempt to pass this drastically-expanded AWB succeeds, the administration will have proven itself virtually unbeatable in matters of policy. They will also further fracture the Republican party and simultaneously serve notice on any pro-gun Democrats that they’d better get with the new program, too.

Here is the insider reasoning as explained to me:

1) Obama has taken a beating from the moonbat Left since they learned they elected the third Clinton administration instead of the Messiah; he needs to do something to rebuild his left-wing cred.

2) He has no, or very limited moves, on the economy; he can’t raise taxes in the face of this brutal recession; it’s awkward to pull troops out of a war that’s apparently won; global warming has fallen off the radar as the snow continues to pile up…he needs a big flashy move, and we may well be that move.

3) The Republicans are disspirited and disorganized. The Blue Dog Dems are less likely to band together this early in his administration against an Obama move, lest they open themselves to a flaying by the faithful. The one Western Dem who might have proved a rallying point, Ken Salazar of Colorado, was tapped to head the Department of the Interior and taken out of play.

4) The gun lobby is as weak now as it is ever going to be during Obama’s administration.

5) Obama has the opportunity to woo the few remaining Bush Republicans — remember, Bush always said he’d sign a new AWB — that a new AWB is “common-sense legislation.”

6) Sources close to the Obama Transition Team acknowledge that a new AWB would burn a huge amount of political capital, but it will “drive a stake in the ground” to prove Obama means what he says about “change” regardless of consequences.