Democratic Senator Won’t Support Weapons Ban

New Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) might just prove to be a thorn in the side of the Obama Administration. Not only did she say in no uncertain that she will not support any weapons ban, but she also reiterated her support for the Keystone Pipeline and said she’s concerned that President Obama seems to be taking his focus off the economy. From Yahoo:

Heitkamp, who says growing the economy is her top priority, is concerned that the president is changing his focus to issues like climate change and gun control.

“I think, you know the one thing that has gotten lost by everyone is one of the best ways that we can perform here is by getting people back to work, making sure that this economic recovery, slow as it is, gets amped up and moves forward,” Heitkamp tells Politics Confidential. “It’s one of the reasons why I’ve been such a big proponent of the Keystone Pipeline. There’s a shovel ready, private sector jobs program, good paying jobs.”

On the topic of gun control, Heitkamp does not hesitate when asked if she’ll support an assault weapons ban; her answer is a definitive no.

“There’s literally hundreds of thousands of guns already out there,” says Heitkamp. “This isn’t a solution to the problem, that’s my first thing. And I think if you read the case, the Second Amendment case, you got some serious Second Amendment challenges in all of this, and my personal perspective is that you are ignoring what could actually work to prevent this from happening because you are following an agenda that you already had before this ever happened, instead of taking a look at this circumstance, these situations and how do we prevent this violence.”

Heitkamp says mental health needs to be part of the conversation in finding solutions to gun violence.

While I am sure that these positions won’t endear her to the left and might even cause some groups to try and come after her in the next election for opposing much of President Obama’s agenda, she shouldn’t worry. She represents North Dakota, a state President Obama lost by 20 points. I’d say opposing his agenda might be exactly what the people she represents want her to do for them in the U.S. Senate.