Hey, who’s up for renewing the assault weapons ban? Update: Not Pelosi

Gotta give Eric Holder credit: His use of “just a few” here is simply a masterpiece of ominous rhetorical efficiency.

You can’t say you weren’t warned.

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today.

“As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters…

Holder declined to offer any time frame for the reimplementation of the assault weapons ban, however.

“It’s something, as I said, that the president talked about during the campaign,” he said. “There are obviously a number of things that are — that have been taking up a substantial amount of his time, and so, I’m not sure exactly what the sequencing will be.”

Combine this with the fact that demand for guns has been booming for months and we should see the price of semi-automatics blow sky high. Any ban will have to survive two challenges: One, obviously, will be a goal-line stand by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in applying the Heller decision, but count on smilin’ Anthony Kennedy to “find his conscience” and switch sides if it gets that far. The more serious obstacle is convincing a majority in the House to vote for it. An NRA spokesman tells the Standard he expects 60+ Blue Dogs — roughly the number endorsed by the group two years ago — to oppose a ban, but I think he’s kidding himself. It’s one thing to be pro-gun when there’s a Republican majority and no chance of the ban coming back; it’s another thing to do it when there’s a serious chance of passage and the prestige of a new president from your own party is riding on it. I’ll bet it passes — narrowly. Exit question: Will the Centrist Three in the Senate join with the GOP to filibuster? Specter’s pretty good on guns.

Update: Looks like I spoke way, way too soon. Clearly, Madam Speaker doesn’t think she has the votes.

Attorney General Eric Holder raised the prospect Wednesday that the administration would push to bring back the ban. But Pelosi (D-Calif.) indicated on Thursday that he never talked to her. The Speaker gave a flat “no” when asked if she had talked to administration officials about the ban.

“On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. “I think it’s clear the Bush administration didn’t do that.”

Presumably they’ll revisit the issue after the midterms if they pick up a few more liberal seats in the House.

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