Plastic gun bill may be only gun measure before 2015

Susan Davis | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the only piece of gun legislation likely to pass Congress despite sweeping calls to overhaul the nation's gun laws in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December.

The bill is a simple, 10-year extension of an existing 1988 law banning guns that are undetectable in metal detectors or X-Ray machines. Democrats wanted to amend the law to strengthen the ban but accepted it without changes to get it passed.

"If we only define ourselves by this Congress, we're in trouble because they don't do anything," said Joshua Horwitz, the executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, noting that this Congress has not enacted major legislation on a range of issues, from immigration to a budget. "You have to look at this issue in terms of overall congressional dysfunction," he said.

Congressional inaction has not stopped a wave of grass-roots activism on both sides of the gun debate that could play a role in the 2014 midterm elections, activists say.

"I have never seen as much thrown at us on our side as we've seen this year, and considering what was thrown at us, and the fact that we were able to stop everything on a federal level that we've considered to be bad is quite frankly a miracle," said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

For example, Gottlieb noted that ammunition and gun sales are up, as are donations and membership to gun rights groups. The Second Amendment Foundation, founded in 1974 by Gottlieb, could have its single best fundraising year in 2013, and Gottlieb said he expects gun owners "will be turning out in record numbers" next November.

Gun-control advocates are similarly buoyed despite federal inaction. "This movement is strong and growing stronger," said Horwitz, citing the addition of high-profile advocates including former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which launched after the Newtown shootings. "You can't look at the federal failure as the end of this. That's not what happening," Horwitz said.

"I think the 2014 elections are completely key," he said. "People are sick of it and I think people are energized at the state and local level."

There is, however, consensus that Congress will not act on any new gun legislation ahead of the midterm elections. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said consistently since the Senate failed in April to advance legislation to expand background checks that he does not have the votes to move gun legislation.

House Republican leaders have not advanced any new gun legislation, but they have said they could be supportive of legislation addressing mental health issues.

The Senate has not yet agreed to extend the plastic guns law, which expires Dec. 9, and Democratic efforts to expand its scope to cover new technology are being rebuffed by Republicans and outside gun owners' rights groups.

House Democrats were resigned Tuesday to accepting the extension without changes. "There's lots of things we'd do if majority ruled, and (Democrats) were the majority here, but we're going to have to practice the art of the possible and pass the best law we can," said Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J.,. Andrews said Democrats would move gun bills if they win a majority in 2014. "There will be sensible legislation on many fronts," he said.