Photograph by Guillaume Meyer/AFP via Getty Images

Gun show goers look at various assault-style weapons at the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly, Virginia.

More than nine in 10 Americans favor mandatory background checks for purchases at gun shows,  according to a poll out today.

The ABC News/Washington Post survey showed 91 percent supporting such checks, with 8 percent opposing them. Making illegal gun sales a federal crime was backed by 82 percent, with 15 percent in opposition.

President Barack Obama’s call to ban military-style assault weapons is supported by 57 percent and opposed by 41 percent.

The findings came as the Senate Judiciary Committee today passed legislation to expand background checks for most gun purchases. The committee last week voted to increase penalties for gun trafficking. It faces tough opposition in the House.

The poll of 1,001 adults was conducted March 7-10 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Original post is Background Checks for Gun-Buyers: Poll Finds Overwhelming Support by Political Capital.

Photograph by Brendan Smialoswki/AFP via Getty Images

A person uses a cell phone to photograph assault style weapons before a press conference on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2013.

That’s how many current senators were serving in the Senate when it sought nine years ago to extend a ban on certain semiautomatic “assault weapons.”

In March 2004, the Senate voted 52-47 for a 10-year extension of a ban on 19 assault weapons that was enacted in 1994. The extension was approved as an amendment to a gun industry liability bill that ultimately never passed, and the ban lapsed.

A ban on assault weapons is one part of President Barack Obama’s plan to curb gun violence following a shooting last month in Newtown, Connecticut. A proposed ban “faces opposition in Congress even as a majority of the public supports it,” Bloomberg’s Heidi Przybyla wrote yesterday, when shooting victims and gun-rights advocates testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Republicans control the House of Representatives, and Democrats have a majority of seats in the Senate.

Of the 39 current senators who were in the Senate in March 2004, 19 voted to extend the assault weapons ban and 19 voted against it. South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson didn’t vote. This compilation excludes Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, the incoming Secretary of State whose resignation from the Senate is effective tomorrow.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 39 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Retired NASA astronaut and Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, right, and his wife, shooting victim and former Rep. Gabby Giffords arrive for a Senate Judiciary Committee followed by Chairman Patrick Leahy and ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley before hearing about gun control on Capitol Hill on Jan. 30, 2013.

“The time is now.”

The words of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who was grievously wounded in a gunman’s attack in Tucson in2011, appearing today at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“You must act,” Giffords told the Senate committee, holding its first hearing on the issue of curbing gun violence since the latest massacre that shook the nation, the shootings of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, last month.

“Be bold, be courageous,” Giffords told the committee. “Americans are counting on you.”

Her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, shared a picture of the couple before the committee and posted these notes on n Twitter:

@gabbygiffords delivered remarks in congress today for the first time in over two years. We’ve come a long, long way. #Giffords

— Mark Kelly (@ShuttleCDRKelly) January 30, 2013

My courageous wife @gabbygiffordsabout to give opening statement at gun hearing. twitter.com/ShuttleCDRKell…

— Mark Kelly (@ShuttleCDRKelly) January 30, 2013

“Americans are looking to us for solutions and action,” said Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

There should be no question, Leahy said, about expanding the instant background checks required for gun-buyers.

He also said this, at a hearing that will include testimony the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre.

“The Second Amendment is secure and will remain secure.”

Original post is Giffords on Gun Control: ‘Time is Now’ by Political Capital.