Gun control efforts are expected to be revived in Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When the 113th Congress opens for business in January, gun control advocates and their allies on Capitol Hill — including New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein — will renew efforts to ban assault weapons and mandate background checks on all gun transactions.

"There have been a rash of these unbelievably horrible incidents, culminating in yesterday's shocking act in Newtown," Schumer said in a statement. "I am hopeful that yesterday's unspeakable events will cause the nation to re-examine its position on guns, and allow us to come to a solution that still preserves the right to bear arms for law-abiding citizens, but makes it much harder for those who would do us harm to obtain firearms."

But the likelihood of gun control legislation winning congressional approval is not any brighter than it was prior to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., which took the lives of 20 children and six adults.

With gun-rights-minded Republicans controlling the House and some Senate Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and John Tester, D-Montana, opposing gun control, legislation to rein in access to lethal weaponry faces a steep uphill climb — no matter how much the political ground has shifted.

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