Democratic Senate hopefuls take cautious tack on assault weapons ban

Democratic Senate candidates in the year’s most competitive races are treading lightly on an issue that has the backing of the party’s top officials: an assault weapons ban.

From Pennsylvania to Arizona, only a handful of Democratic Senate candidates have homed in on calls for reinstating the long-expired federal ban on so-called assault weapons in the wake of the mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that left 21 people – including 19 children – dead.