Assault Weapons Ban Picks Up GOP Support

WASHINGTON - Three Republican senators agreed Tuesday to support renewal of the soon-to-expire assault weapons ban, a small victory for gun control proponents as the Senate prepares to wade into several contentious gun issues this election year.

The GOP-controlled Senate plans to take up legislation Wednesday that would immunize gun manufacturers and distributors from lawsuits that arise from crimes in which guns were used.

Senate Republicans have enough votes to approve the legislation. Democrats plan to force votes on at least two other gun issues they want to attach to it, however, amendments to renew the assault weapons ban and to require background checks for all purchasers at gun shows.

Gun rights groups plan to urge majority Republicans to defeat both measures. The GOP-controlled House already has said it does not plan to approve the extension of the assault weapons ban.

"To protect the future of America's millions of gun owners, it is vital that the Senate pass (the lawsuits immunization bill) without any antigun amendments," the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action said on its Web site.

The White House also urged the Senate to pass the legislation without amendments.

"The administration urges the Senate to pass a clean bill, in order to ensure enactment of the legislation this year," the White House said in a statement. "Any amendment that would delay enactment of the bill beyond this year is unacceptable."

Getting the 1994 assault weapons prohibition renewed has been a Democratic priority this year. They picked up support Tuesday from GOP Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

"Although I voted against the ban a decade ago, over the past 10 years it has reduced crime dramatically and has made our streets safer," Warner said. "The legislation also has protected the rights of gun owners better than many of us predicted."

The three GOP senators' support does not guarantee the amendment's approval in the Senate, but "this gives the effort to renew the assault weapons ban new momentum," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a sponsor of the original assault weapons ban.

Republicans, along with several Senate Democrats, have been pushing for the gun immunity legislation for some time. Gun advocates say firearm makers shouldn't be forced to spend millions of dollars fighting off lawsuits designed to win large rewards and bankrupt them for making legal products.

"The manufacturer or seller of a legal, nondefective product should not be held liable for the criminal or unlawful misuse of that product by others," the White House said.

Democrats like Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota agreed to get behind the legislation after gun supporters accepted a specification that firearms manufacturers and distributors would not be protected from lawsuits that involved defective products or illegal sales.

Great post I found at Government Monkey

http://www2.trettel.net:8080/mt/archives/000223.html

No one here but us politicians...

Pandering away as usual, Kathleen Townsend on Monday called for new restrictions on scary looking guns as the proper response to the .223 shootings (I ain't gonna call the guy a sniper, sorry). Never mind the fact that the Bushmaster used in the shooting wasn't bought in Maryland, or that it was secured illegally in Washington State, or that Mr. Muhammed wasn't allowed to own a gun in the first place, or that he broke a myriad collection of laws by transporting it to Maryland and shooting people with it, and also let's not mind the fact that his youthful sidekick Mr. Malvo was in the country illegally, and that he also wasn't legally allowed to have a gun, and yadda yadda yadda. Let's pass yet more laws instead! Screw enforcing the one's we've got!

If anyone wants to know what's wrong with the Democratic Party, well I'll point to this as just one instance. The proper response to a tragedy such as this should be a sober and introspective analysis of what happened, not a knee jerk attempt to shift the blame to an innocent party by coming up with yet more laws. Let's be clear about this, because that's what's going on here. Here's MoCo's Supreme Leader on who to blame:

"Gunmakers are making a mockery of our gun laws," said Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D), who appeared with Townsend.

That's right-the nerve of those gunmakers to sell guns that are in reality fully compliant with the laws on the books! They should know that the actual intent is to shut them down, and to simply do so. Here's a free clue for Duncan and Townsend-the Bushmaster company did not send a factory representative down to Maryland to shoot the place up. Nor did Bushmaster produce a rifle that was actually any more deadly than any other common bolt action rifle-it just happens to look scary. What did happen was that two criminals named Muhammed and Malvo shot the place up with an illegally purchased gun, and also performed multiple acts of violence in the states of Alabama and Virginia. Perhaps we might want to look at these two people instead, since they seem to bear the brunt of the blame and responsibility. I would hope that this is an easy concept to grasp, although perhaps I'm asking a bit too much of our selected leaders.

To be fair the reason why Townsend made this proposition is because her opponent Bob Ehrlich had just secured the endorsement of the Montgomery Country Fraternal Order of Police. It was her way of stealing attention back to her campaign, and the comment was clearly intended to serve as a rallying point for her followers in Montgomery County. Also, to be fair the Post story actually included some balance in it by quoting a gun rights supporter:

"She keeps calling for common-sense gun laws, but we've already got 350 laws on the books. Isn't that enough?" said Sanford Abrams of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association. "There's no other reason for this pronouncement of hers except to get votes in Montgomery and Prince George's counties."

The reality is that there is damn little any laws could do to stop this type of violence in the USA. Without even getting into the merits of the 2nd Amendment as it applies today, the plain fact is that there's some 200 million guns in circulation in this country. It would be simply impossible to remove all these guns from circulation short of making the USA a police state-Americans have a long and noble history of ignoring laws they don't like. What Muhammed and Malvo did could have been done with almost any common rifle that could be had in any pawn shop, garage sale, black market sale, or burglery in the USA. There's no way to get around that fact-so the best thing to do here is to give these two men their fair trial (hopefully in Prince Williams County, VA) and move along. Posted by mtrettel at October 30, 2002 08:59 AM

100% of gun owners voted for Bush in 2000????

First, I said "nearly 100%".

Secondly, I wasn't talking about "gun owners" in general, rather those that post on the gun forums that I visit. And yes, I'll stick to my contention that almost 100% of them voted for Bush in 2000.

Beyond that, I'm not really sure what your point is.

If it's to nitpick, I guess I should have done a better job clarifying my initial statement.

If it's to suggest that the AWB ban really doesn't matter when it comes to the elections this year, I would simply state that you're wrong.

If it's to contend that the people posting on these gun forums are leftists, I would suggest reading the posts at ar15.com and thehighroad.org.

If your point is to infer that the people posting there are really undercover DU operatives funded by Al Queda, with the intent of derailing the Bush re-election campaign by causing dissent in the ranks, I would simply laugh my tail off.

But back to the issue at hand:

Based on the stuff I've read, Bush got somewhere around 60% or less of the gunowner vote.

Most gunowners don't vote simply on the gun issue.

But for those that do, they made a big difference in West Virginia and Tennessee and Florida in 2000.

And be assured that if the AWB is renewed in any shape, form, or fashion, the single-issue Freedom/gun voters will withold support from anyone involved in passing new gun control legislation.

And yes, there are enough of us to make a difference at the ballot box. There have been countless congressmen, state reps, and even governors who have been defeated just because they went against the 2nd amendment.

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