At a gun shop in Fayetteville, N.C., a sales associate shows a XDM handgun. Dems vow to defeat gun amendment

Democratic senators today vowed to defeat a Republican amendment that would loosen gun control restrictions across the country – a proposal Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid allowed to be brought to the floor on the annual Defense authorization bill.

“Why would we want to walk the streets wondering, ‘Who has a gun in their pockets?’” asked Democratic Senatorial Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).


It's not clear if Democrats have the votes to filibuster this amendment — other gun proposals have cleared the Senate with ease thanks to support from pro-gun Democrats in the south and Midwest.

Menendez joined a handful of other Democratic senators – including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who is leading up the charge – in blasting the gun amendment, which would allow licensed gun owners to transport their concealed weapons across state lines.

Feinstein called the measure “reckless,” “irresponsible,” and “a major violation of state rights.”

“I have to doubt that if the amendment passes, people will die as a result of it,” Feinstein told reporters today.

But it was the Democratic leader Reid, who is facing a potentially difficult 2010 re-election bid in his libertarian-minded state of Nevada, who green-lighted bringing the measure to a floor vote.

Lautenberg declined to speculate on why Reid had decided to bring the amendment to the floor – or if it had anything to do with election politics – but said he believed Reid would be voting against the measure.

“He is with us,” Lautenberg declared.

But Reid told reporters today that he would vote in favor of the Thune amendment.

Asked why, Reid responded: "I'm not going to explain why I'm voting for it. I'm just voting for it."

Still, with a few conservative-minded Democrats seen as potential supporters of the measure, Schumer acknowledged that defeating the amendment would be difficult.

“It’s going to be a close vote, no question about it,” Schumer said.