With the Democratic Party platform committee set to hammer out its positions next week in Detroit, some North Carolina Democrats say they'll push the party to take a tougher stand on controlling access to assault weapons, the Charlotte Observer reports. “Democrats haven't been altogether forceful on the (gun control) issue,” said state Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro, an N.C. delegate and member of the party's platform committee. “But given the recent shootings in Arizona and Colorado – and a ton of shootings around the country that don't get all the attention – we need to be, and can be, more thoughtful on the guns issue.”
She will urge the party to support reinstituting a 1994 ban on assault weapons. The ban expired in 2004, and attempts to renew it have grabbed little traction. State Senator Dan Blue of Raleigh, a former N.C. House speaker, is all for Democrats addressing access to assault and other military-style weapons. “I certainly support the Second Amendment (right to bear arms), but I don't think that everybody ought to be able to have a tank in their back yard,” said Blue, a party rules committee member. “Assault weapons are hard to control and they're designed to mow down a lot of people.