NRA Honcho: Assault Weapons Ban Won't Pass

There's no way gun control advocates have the votes to get an assault weapons ban through Congress, NRA President David Keene told CNN today. "I would say that the likelihood is that they're not going to be able to get an assault weapons ban through this Congress," he said, adding that limiting high-capacity ammunition magazines was equally unlikely. "Even David Gregory could find one," he said. Politico notes that when State of the Union host Candy Crowley asked if the NRA was using scare tactics to spur gun sales, Keene responded, "The two people who were selling so-called assault rifles are Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein and President Obama. They're the ones scaring people, not us."

Joe Manchin, a pro-gun Democrat who voiced openness to gun regulation in wake of the Newtown massacre, sounded a similarly skeptical note on Crowley's show. "Assault weapons stand alone ban on just guns alone will not in the political reality that we have today go anywhere," said the West Virginia senator. "It has to be comprehensive and that's what I tried to tell the vice president and I've told everybody, it has to be a comprehensive approach." (More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)