Pro-gun-rights senator urges review of laws

LITTLE ROCK — Congressional Democrats showed signs Monday of a more aggressive push on gun control in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., killings, while Republicans and gun-rights advocates remained largely silent on policy matters.

Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., the pro-gun-rights senator who drew attention in 2010 after running a commercial that showed him firing a rifle at an environmental bill, said that “everything should be on the table” as gun control is debated in the coming weeks and months.

Rep. John Yarmuth, a moderate Democrat from Kentucky, held a news conference to say he backed new legislation.

“I have been largely silent on the issue of gun violence over the past six years, and I am now as sorry for that as I am for what happened to the families who lost so much in this most recent, but sadly not isolated, tragedy,” Yarmuth said in a statement. “The National Rifle Association has spent untold millions of dollars instilling fear in our citizens and our politicians.”

He added, “I believe it is more rational to fear guns far more than the illusory political power of the NRA.”

And in a Twitter message sent out before a television appearance, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., called the episode a “game changer.”

The National Rifle Association also has been largely silent since the shootings Friday morning. On Monday, the home page of its website contained a blog post from Nov. 27, titled, “More Guns, Less Crime in Virginia,” and the association’s Twitter account, which is normally active, has not sent a message since Friday.

It remains unclear whether any new legislation is likely to pass, especially given that Congress remains focused on budget matters for the time being. President Barack Obama said at a memorial service that he planned to take executive action to reduce shootings, although he has not yet specified what that action what might be.

The White House said Monday that curbing gun violence is a complex problem that will require a “comprehensive solution” including addressing gun control measures.

Still, spokesman Jay Carney said gun control is not the only solution to stopping shootings and said no single piece of legislation or single action will fully address the problem.

Manchin, an avid hunter with an A rating from the National Rifle Association, indicated that he supported re-evaluating laws that permit people to have clips that hold dozens of rounds of ammunition and to own assault rifles.

Manchin stopped short of saying what, if any, changes to gun laws he would support.

In the past, the National Rifle Association’s political fund has praised Manchin, a former governor of West Virginia, for taking various steps to protect gun owners, like signing a law that prohibits the confiscating of guns during a state of emergency.

“I’ll go over and sit down with them and say, ‘How can we take the dialogue to a different level?”’ he said. “How can we sit down and make sure that we’re moving and not be afraid that someone’s going to attack our freedoms and our rights?”

Meanwhile, two people familiar with the situation said Obama has a ready list of options prepared by the Justice Department to start meeting his pledge to “use whatever power this office holds” to prevent another mass shooting.

Enhancements to the national background check database, harsher sentences for people who serve as “straw” buyers of weapons, and increased funding for states that improve their background check submissions are among the options conceived last year by a group that included senior Justice Department officials, the people said.

While some of the group’s recommendations have been put in place, those requiring congressional action haven’t. The gun-control debate mostly has been dormant on Capitol Hill in recent years because of opposition from gun-rights groups.

Carney said Monday that the president would come forward with plans on the matter “in coming weeks.” Information for this article was contributed by Jeremy Peters, John H. Cushman Jr., Thomas Kaplan, Danny Hakim and Michael M. Grynbaum of The New York Times; by Phil Mattingly and Kathleen Hunter of Bloomberg News; and by staff members of The Associated Press.