Joe Manchin Ready for *** Control Action

[ApolloBalboa]

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the strongest backers of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the Democratic Party, said it is time to sit down and have a "sensible, reasonable" debate about *** control in light of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., and expressed an openness to banning assault weapons.

"It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way. ... Everything has to be on the table," Manchin said in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, adding that he had just come from deer hunting with his ******.

Manchin's comments are significant because he has an "A" rating from the NRA for his pro-*** positions, and the organization endorsed him as recently as October 2012.

It's nice to see that even one of the NRA's own recognizes that things have to be dealt with. A point he makes that and I've been asking and posting and yet no one has answered, pro-*** or not, is why does any civilian need automatic weapons?

In Monday's interview, Manchin was critical of assault rifles, saying no hunter needs a weapon like that, although he didn't explicitly say he would back Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) ban on such weapons, which she has said she will introduce in the new year.

"I don't know anyone who in the hunting or sporting arena that goes out with an assault rifle. I don't know anybody that needs 30 rounds in the clip to go hunting," Manchin said. "I mean, these are things that need to be talked about."

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