On Sept. 13, 2004, Congress allowed a 10-year ban on assault weapons to expire, once again legalizing rapid-fire, semiautomatic weapons like the AK-47, the TEC-9 and the Uzi. Two weeks later, despite 10 years of declining murder rates, the House of Representatives voted to abolish the District of Columbia's strict gun laws. Gun control supporters and major police organizations said the laws had protected civilians and police officers. But the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) argued that the laws were ineffective and trampled constitutional rights. Meanwhile, victims of gun violence have won $4.4 million in damages from gun dealers and a manufacturer. As the industry lobbies Congress and the states to immunize it against such suits, gun control advocates vow to renew the assault-weapons ban and strengthen the 1993 Brady law. However, given the results of the Nov. 2 presidential and congressional elections, it is considered highly unlikely that the new Congress will pass additional gun control measures.
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CQ Researcher Gun Control Debate v.14-40 Bio(s)
Bob Adams Bob Adams is a veteran Washington journalist who specializes in foreign policy and national politics. He covered the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s, the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and four presidential campaigns and served for 10 years as Washington bureau chief of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has received two awards from the Overseas Press Club (for reporting on the Soviet Union and Central America); the Raymond Clapper Award from the White House Correspondents’ Association (for best reporting by a Washington correspondent on any topic) and the National Headliner Award for exposing defense fraud and has been a judge for the Pulitzer Prizes. His previous CQ Researcher reports include the “Glass Ceiling” and “Primary Health Care.” He has a B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois.
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