Obama Backing Off Assault Weapons Ban?

President Obama “traveled to the nation’s heartland to press his case for tougher gun laws on Monday, even as evidence mounted in Washington that expanded background checks on gun sales may emerge as a legislative compromise in the bitterly divisive cultural debate,” the New York Times reports.

“At the event, Mr. Obama declared ‘universal background checks’ to be supported by the ‘vast majority of Americans’ and called for quick passage in Congress of legislation expanding their reach… But the president set a different political standard for a potential assault weapons ban, saying only that it ‘deserves a vote in Congress because weapons of war have no place on our streets.'”

Politico notes Obama “lamented a key lesson he learned during his first term as
president: That no legislation is done until the moment he affixes his
signature — which leaves a lot of work left to do.”