Posted on 07/26/2005 1:18:10 PM PDT by RWR8189
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Tuesday put off until fall completing a $491 billion defense bill to act this week on the National Rifle Association's top priority: shielding gun manufacturers and dealers from liability suits stemming from gun crimes.
On a 66-32 test vote, the Senate indicated there's plenty of support for Republican leaders' determination to pass the gun bill before lawmakers leave at the end of this week for a monthlong vacation.
"The only reason it is coming to the floor, in a time of war to interrupt the debate on the Defense Authorization bill is that members are feeling pressure form the gun lobby," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.
Congress was on the way to passing the bill last year when the NRA abruptly asked its chief sponsor, Sen. Larry Craig, R-, R-Idaho, to withdraw it after gun opponents succeeded in amending it to extend an expiring ban on assault weapons. A pickup of four GOP Senate seats in last November's election emboldened gun rights supporters to try again, confident they can block reimposing restrictions on assault-type weapons.
The bill would prohibit lawsuits against the firearms industry for damages resulting form the unlawful use of a firearm or ammunition. Craig, a member of the NRA's board of directors, said such lawsuits are "predatory and aimed at bankrupting the firearms industry." Such lawsuits unfairly blame dealers and manufacturers for the crimes of gun users, he added.
Gun makers and dealers still would be subject to product liability, negligence or breach of contract suits under the bill, Craig said.
Gun opponents say the bill effectively exempts from liability gunmakers and that dealers allow the weapons to get into the hands of people the law says shouldn't have them. If the bill had been law when six victims of Washington, D.C. snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo sued the gun dealer from which they obtained their rifle, the dealer would not have agreed to pay the families and victims $2.5 million, say opponents of the bill.
The Republican-controlled House passed a similar bill in 2004 but has taken no action on the issue this year.
Democrats and Republicans alike court the powerful NRA at election time, and the bill has garnered bipartisan support. But the gun industry still gave 88 percent of its campaign contributions, or $1.2 million to Republicans in the 2004 election cycle. Gun control advocates, meanwhile, gave 98 percent of their contributions, or $93,700, to Democrats that cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Do I detect a little bias here? (sarcasm)
I'm sure one of the usual suspects will poop on this bill with a poison pill rider. My pick would be DiFi.
Opponents claim that the bill would not allow the victims of the Beltway Sniper sue the gun dealer thru negligence lost one rifle in his inventory from being sued is not true. The gun desler had a weapon stolen from his store and he did not know because he did not keep accurate records and inventory of all the weapons in his store is a violation of his FFL obligations. Under this bill the dealer can be sued and a reasonable jury will convict him of negligence.
This is great news. I guess the Rats are feeling the heat from their attempts to suppress civil rights.
Yes, but postponing the defense bill until the fall will cost some jobs.
Note to socialist Jack Reed: Stick it in your ear, or other holes, which ever fits.
This situation illustrates why it is so important to elect Republicans, even if an occasional "RINO" slips through. Every Republican is better than the average Democrat on issues important to us.
ping
What is a RINO?
RINO= Republican in name only.
Thanks.
The opponents of "gun control advocates" are not just the "gun industry". The NRA is not the gun industry.
If the anti-gunners only managed $93,700 then I am encouraged.
I doubt it was political pressure from the NRA that has caused the schedule change. No doubt defense related politics and pragmatic scheduling issues determined the timing. The Rat spin is, of course, that Republicans care more about appeasing the evil NRA than the defense of the nation.
And in the meantime, the ATF(E), at the direction of Attorney General Gonzales, is unilaterally effecting it's own "Assault Weapons Ban" by prohibiting importation of foreign guns or gun parts, that are "for a non-sporting purpose"..
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/071305openletter.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1442263/postshttp://www.atf.gov/firearms/071305openletter.htm
Just sayin', maybe the senate is "out of the loop"..
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