By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A resolution asking President Obama not to renew the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons narrowly failed in a House committee Tuesday.

In a 10-7 vote, with 11 votes needed to advance, the House Judiciary Committee rejected House Resolution 1032 by Rep. John Woods, R-Springdale.

Woods and Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, who spoke for the measure, said later they would probably bring the back to the panel Wednesday for reconsideration.

Woods told the committee U.S. Reps. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Marion Berry, D-Gillett, along with 65 other congressmen recently sent a letter to the president asking that the assault weapons ban not be reinstated because there was no statistical evidence to show that crime had been reduced.

“I just see this as something we’re coming together on,” Woods said. “It’s a bipartisan effort. I think is a strong way to say, ‘this is how we feel, these are Arkansas values and this is how we feel about the Second Amendment.’”

Cooper said he opposed any legislation that would place restrictions on the right to own weapons.

Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville, asked Woods if he had a definition of  “assault rifle.”

“Seems like we’d need that to vote. I mean, that’s what we’re deciding on,” she said.

Woods said he did not have a definition, but said he heard that there is a move to reinstate the ban, and possibly include other automatic and semi-automatic weapons.

“The new ban that is being discussed … would ban all the tens of millions of semi-auto shotguns Americans already have, so it’s different,” he said. “It’s an area where the new ban being discussed is going to be different than 1994 and it varies depending on who is crafting the legislation.”

The panel endorsed an amendment to HB 1623 by Rep. Randy Stewart, D-Kirby, which would place restrictions on what information about concealed handgun permit carriers can be made public.

Stewart originally wanted all information withheld from the state’s Freedom of Information Act, but his bill was amended in the Senate to allow the names of the permit holders and the zip code of their home address to be released.

The measure passed the Senate and now must go to the House for approval of the amendment.

“This does give some level of protection that we do not have under the current state law,” Stewart told the committee.