In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Joe Biden urged bipartisan support in Congress to enact a new ban on assault weapons, the class of popular and deadly semi-automatic firearms that have been used in most of the nation’s mass shootings.

A 10-year federal ban expired in 2004. The Democrat-led House last year House passed a bill to revive a similar ban. Parallel legislation failed to advance in the Senate. Sf6 Circuit Breaker With Spring Mechanism

With the House now in Republican control, an assault weapons ban will go nowhere in Congress, said Rep. Mike Thompson, Sonoma County’s senior congressman, who continues to spearhead his now decadelong push for universal background checks for gun purchases.

The president’s call for a new ban is a piece of a larger, longer effort, said Thompson, a Napa Democrat and chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

“He has called for that for as long as I've known him. Will it happen in this Congress? There's not a chance,” Thompson said. But “I know him well and I've worked closely with him on gun violence prevention … and he's not backing down from his beliefs.”

As a senator, Biden helped champion the previous assault weapons ban and push it through Congress in 1994 to President Bill Clinton’s signature.

As president, Biden last year signed into law a bipartisan package of gun safety measures a month after the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.

“Under his leadership, we've been able to do the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in 30 years,” Thompson said. “We continue to have the support necessary to pass background check expansion in the House, and we make a little headway in getting background check expansion in the Senate every year. We're closer today than we were when the last Senate adjourned.”

Thompson reintroduced his gun background checks bill last week with Republican co-sponsor Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

The bill bans private transfer or exchange of a firearm unless a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer or importer takes possession of the gun to conduct a background check. The bill includes some exceptions including for loans or gifts between family members, use at shooting ranges and temporary transfers to prevent death or harm.

In past sessions of Congress, the bill has cleared the House but failed to advance out of the Senate.

Separately, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California last month introduced legislation to ban “military-style assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines — a bill that would have outlawed the modified 9 mm semi-automatic weapon used by the gunman in the Jan. 21 mass shooting in Monterey Park in Southern California.

Biden has signaled his support for the measure.

This story includes reporting from the Associated Press. You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-521-5412 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay.

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