Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) paid tribute to the late senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) on the floor of the upper chamber after the news of her passing on Friday — but not without criticizing the National Rifle Association in the process.
Schumer offered words of remembrance Friday honoring Feinstein, who was a vocal proponent of gun-control legislation, including a federal ban on “assault weapons” that was passed and signed in 1994.
“She would take on any force, any special interest, any opponent with relentless integrity and would wear those opponents down until she succeeded. Again, her integrity just shown through them, and she won … and each time made the country a better place,” said Schumer. “I saw this up close when she passed the ‘assault weapons’ ban, a passion of hers after what happened to her in California.”
Schumer was likely referring to an experience Feinstein had in 1978 when two San Francisco politicians, Harvey Milk and George Moscone, were shot. Feinstein replaced Moscone as the city’s mayor.
“The NRA was a relentless, often mean-spirited, and chauvinistic foe. They oozed vitriol against her. But they didn’t scare her, they didn’t stop her, and they failed against her, like most of her opponents,” he added.
In 2013, Feinstein unsuccessfully tried to expand the scope of the initial “assault-weapons” ban that expired in 2004. The updated bill was a broad revision that would have prohibited the sale, transfer, manufacturing, and importation of semi-automatic firearms. Shortly after introducing the modified bill, the California senator was met with stiff opposition from the NRA.
The gun-rights lobbying group said at the time that Feinstein “has been trying to ban guns from law-abiding citizens for decades.” Since then, she has doubled down on gun control, often citing the NRA as the group to blame for Republican opposition to her legislation. The 2013 ban ultimately did not pass the Senate.
“The sign of a leader is someone who dedicates the whole of their spirit for a cause greater than themselves. The sign of a hero is someone who fights for others, who endures for others, no matter the cost, no matter the odds. And the sign of a friend is someone who stands by your side to fight the good fight on the good days and the bad,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“Dianne Feinstein was all of this and more. A friend, a hero for so many … a leader who changed the nature of the Senate and who changed the fabric of the nation, America, for the better,” he added.
Feinstein, who was the longest serving U.S. senator from California, died at the age of 90 Thursday evening at her home in Washington, D.C.