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Key players in the gun-control debate These are the people who could help make-or-break efforts to implement new gun legislation.
President Obama and Vice President Biden
In the wake of the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six teachers were killed, the Obama administration has made gun control a top priority. Among the president’s proposals : mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, reinstating the ban on military-style assault weapons that lapsed in 2004, limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds and new funding for mental health services.
Nikki Kahn
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The Washington Post
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House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)
The speaker of the House has largely remained quiet on new gun-control measures, but a spokesman said in January that Boehner would review the president’s proposals, and “if the Senate passes a bill, we will also take a look at that.”
J. Scott Applewhite
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AP
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
The Senate’s top Republican struck a more combative tone in response to the White House’s proposals. “Our Second Amendment rights are under attack, and I am ready to do whatever it takes to stand up for our freedom,” McConnell wrote in a January fundraising pitch .
Michael Reynolds
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European Pressphoto Agency
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
For the first time since Obama became president four years ago, his political interests and those of Congress’s most powerful Democrat — a supporter of gun rights with a lifetime “B” rating from the NRA — may be diverging.
Andrew Harrer
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Bloomberg
National Rifle Association
The gun lobby’s largest organization, led by President David A. Keene, right, and chief executive Wayne LaPierre, has gone on the defensive since the Newtown shootings. Just days after the tragedy, LaPierre called for new legislation requiring police in every school. He later came out in opposition to universal background checks for all gun purchases, saying they “will never be ‘universal,’ because criminals will never submit to them.” He also opposes new laws banning assault weapons because past efforts had “no impact on lowering crime.”
Nikki Kahn
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The Washington Post
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
House Democrats unveiled a 15-point plan to address gun violence in February, calling for a new federal ban on assault weapons, universal background checks and more money for the Justice Department’s national criminal background check system, as well as more federal dollars to fund mental health, school security programs, gun buy-back programs and scientific research on “the relationship between popular culture and gun violence.”
Bill O'Leary
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The Washington Post
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
The second-ranking House Republican said in February that he supports improving the federal background-check system for gun buyers but stopped short of endorsing universal checks on all weapon purchases. “I think that we can take a lot of lessons from what Virginia did and put it in place at the federal level,” Cantor told CNN, referring to a plan implemented after the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, in which the state linked mental-health information to law enforcement databases used to conduct background checks for gun purchases.
J. Scott Applewhite
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AP
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Feinstein, a long-time gun control advocate, has led the charge to reinstate the assault-weapons ban. In January, she and a group of Democratic colleagues in both houses of Congress introduced a bill that would ban the sale, transfer, manufacturing or importation of more than 150 specific firearms, including semiautomatic rifles or pistols that can be used with a detachable or fixed ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and have specific military-style features, including pistol grips, grenade launchers or rocket launchers. However, Senate Democrats announced March 19 that the measure would not be part of a broader gun-control package .
Manuel Balce Ceneta
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AP
Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)
As the country’s most famous victim advocate, Giffords has emerged as the face of a renewed effort across the country to legislate gun control. In January 2011, a gunman shot her in the head as she was meeting with constituents in Tucson. Along with her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, Giffords has embarked on a full-scale campaign to try to reduce gun violence. “You must act. Be bold. Be courageous,” Giffords testified at a Senate hearing on gun violence in January. “Americans are counting on you.”
Nikki Kahn
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The Washington Post
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a centrist on gun issues, is likely to play a pivotal role in the debate . “I’m a gun owner,” Leahy said. “I know a lot about it. I was a champion marksman in college. I have a pistol range behind my house.” On March 4, Leahy and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill that would make the practice of gun trafficking a federal crime for the first time, with penalties of up to 20 years for people who buy a firearm for someone legally barred from doing so, such as felons and illegal immigrants. The bill also would punish any person who illegally sells weapons to a straw purchaser. The measure was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 7.
Nikki Kahn
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The Washington Post
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), a conservative Democrat with strong NRA support, has emerged as an unlikely leader on gun control. When prospects for any new action on guns appeared grim, Manchin announced a deal with two Republican senators, Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.), right, on April 10. The agreement’s most important feature is a proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers, to cover transactions at gun shows and Internet sales. The deal will serve as a starting point for the long Senate debate that began when the chamber voted on April 11 to begin debate on a gun bill .
Allison Shelley
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Getty Images
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Boxer introduced a bill that would require the Justice Department and Education Department to draft new school safety guidelines and provide up to $100 million to help schools implement new security plans. The bill essentially expands the Justice Department’s COPS Secure Our Schools grants program, which already provides money to schools for tip lines, surveillance cameras and other security tools. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure on March 12.
Carolyn Kaster
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AP
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
For weeks, Schumer has been locked in negotiations over a new background check bill with Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). However, continued disagreements over whether to keep records of private gun sales prompted Schumer to announce on March 6 that would introduce his own bill , in hopes of striking a deal to expand the national background check system, with limited exceptions. The bill was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 12.
J. Scott Applewhite
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AP
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)
Coburn, who has a solid A-rating from the influential National Rifle Association , has been part of the bipartisan group of senators — along with Schumer, Manchin and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) — discussing a bill on universal background checks. However, Coburn and other gun rights advocates think that mandating recordkeeping could place an undue burden on gun owners or be perceived as the beginning of a national gun registry. “There absolutely will not be record-keeping on legitimate, law abiding gun owners in this country,” he said in February.
Melina Mara
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The Washington Post
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
The billionaire mayor is America’s most prominent and deep-pocketed advocate for gun control . Democrats in the White House and in Congress are working closely with his advocacy group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, to enact his gun-control agenda, and he hopes that he can cleave Republicans from the NRA by using his considerable resources to promote gun laws with which many NRA members will agree.
Patrick Semansky
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AP
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
The senator is “open to measures that would keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill,” his spokesman told the Tampa Bay Times in December. Rubio, who has a B-plus rating from the NRA and an A rating from the Gun Owners of America, “supports a serious and comprehensive study of our laws to find new and better ways to prevent any more mass shootings,” his spokesman said. In a January interview with Fox News Channel, Rubio said he supports background checks for gun purchases but that the issue should be left to the state.
Alex Wong
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Getty Images
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
The GOP-controlled House represents perhaps the biggest obstacle to passage of President Obama’s gun-control agenda. Goodlatte, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said in February that his committee will consider new legislation during this term, but universal background checks are unlikely to be on the table. “It’s not a very practical thing to do and you’ll have a lot of inconvenience to law-abiding citizens at the same time you’re not going to keep many weapons out of the hands of people who are misusing them,” Goodlatte said. “I think there are better ways.”
Susan Walsh
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AP
National Shooting Sports Foundation
Steve Sanetti (pictured) is the president of the NSSF, the trade group for the nation’s leading firearms manufacturers. Sanetti’s organization sponsors the annual SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade) show, the world’s largest gun show for manufacturers, hunters, firearms dealers and gun rights advocates.
Linda Davidson
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The Washington Post
Lawrence Keane, NSSF lobbyist
Lawrence Keane is the NSSF’s senior vice president, general counsel and chief lobbyist. Keane lobbied successfully for the passage of a law in 2005 that grants gun companies a rare protection from liability lawsuits that have targeted many other consumer product manufacturers. The law prohibits lawsuits against gun dealers and firearms manufacturers "for the harm caused by those who criminally or unlawfullly misuse firearm products" and applies to federal, state and local courts.
Jessica Hill
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AP
NRA lobbyist Chris Cox
Chris Cox, is the executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, the group’s political and lobbying arm. He has served in that position since 2002. As the NRA’s chief lobbyist and political strategist, Cox is the face of the NRA on Capitol Hill, the White House and with federal agencies. Cox also oversees the NRA’s nationwide political efforts, national advertising and direct mail programs and is in charge of administering the NRA-ILA’s $25 million budget.
Ethan Miller
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Getty Images
James and Sarah Brady, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
James Brady, the former White House press secretary who was left paralyzed in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan by a mentally ill gunman, heads the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence with his wife. The Brady Campaign was a chief proponent of the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Act and the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons. Recently, Sarah Brady visited Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and state lawmakers to promote a comprehensive measure backed by the governor to fight gun violence, which passed the state senate Feb. 28.
Chip Somodevilla
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Getty Images
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