WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is urging Congress to swiftly pass the assault weapons ban that cleared a Senate panel today on a party-line vote.
But it faces tough odds, after today's 10-to-8 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The panel approved the measure after rejecting a series of Republican amendments. The amendments would have exempted victims of sexual abuse, people living along the Southwest border and others from the assault weapons ban.
President Barack Obama made the ban part of the gun curbs he proposed in January, a month after the deadly shootings at a Connecticut elementary school. An assault weapons ban became law in 1994, but Congress failed to renew it.
White House spokesman Jay Carney says Obama acknowledges that his gun control measures face tough odds. But he argues that the measures won't take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
