Officials: New gun-control laws unlikely

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- New gun-control laws are unlikely to come out of Capitol Hill following the deadly Tucson shooting rampage, Republican and Democratic lawmakers say.

"We're not looking at banning all weapons," U.S. Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, D-N.Y., tells the Los Angeles Times. Ackerman wants to close a loophole that allows some private dealers to sell guns without conducting background checks.

"We're looking to make sure that innocent people from all over will be safe in their own homes and public places," he says.

Ackerman's expectations for passage of his bill are very low and staunch congressional gun advocates are standing firm, the Times reported.

"I believe, as Americans have believed since the American founding, that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens make communities safer, not less safe," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told the Times.

Nevertheless, some lawmakers promise some bills.

U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., said they would put forward measures banning the sale and import of high-capacity ammunition magazines like the one police say Jared Lee Loughner used when he allegedly killed six people and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., outside a supermarket Saturday.

Such magazines were illegal under a 1994 assault-weapons ban enacted during the Clinton administration. The ban lapsed a decade later.

A proposal from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter T. King, R-N.Y., would prohibit the carrying of guns within 1,000 feet of a federal official. U.S. District Judge John M. Roll was among those killed in Tucson.

House Republican leaders have come out against King's bill.