Posted on 10/18/2005 3:38:01 AM PDT by neverdem
Three years ago, the nation's capital region lived in fear of a pair of snipers who killed 10 people and wounded three in random attacks with a Bushmaster XM-15 .223-caliber telescopic rifle - a gleaming civilian version of the Army's basic M-16 assault rifle popular with recreational shooters. In the aftermath, the rifle was traced to a shoddy gun dealer who claimed he somehow "lost" that war weapon and some 200 other guns to the underground market. Victimized families sued in grief and outrage and won $2.5 million in a settlement that most Americans - except Congress - would pronounce proper.
The House of Representatives, in callow disregard of cause and effect in the nation's harrowing gun carnage, is about to take aim at the Bushmaster settlement by voting what is expected to be final approval of a bill to grant assault-proof protection from damage suits to the gun industry, from manufacturers to dealers. This extraordinary shield, written to the diktat of the National Rifle Association, is so sweeping that it would have barred the D.C. sniper settlement and other valid negligence claims, according to legal experts stunned that any industry could ever win such blanket immunity.
With all the critical issues on the national agenda, from the Iraq war to hurricane recovery, the House's eagerness is obscene as the gun lobby herds lawmakers from both parties behind a bill to deny victimized families their fair day in court. The bill goes beyond barring lawsuits to shielding black-market dealers from administrative loss of their licenses without near impossible burdens of proof.
President Bush talked favorably about the assault weapons ban as a candidate but was notoriously mute when the Republican Congress let the ban expire last year. Surely he would not compound the nation's gun scourge by signing the immunity...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Can't make hide nor hair of it.
6-10 people a week die on the Washington/Baltimore beltway.
now that's carnage...
If the anti-gunners had not announced publically that their intention is to sue the gun manufacturers out of business, there would not be any need for this legislation. But the anti-gunners have launched a concerted strategy to abuse the courts to achieve the goals they have not been able to reach through legislation and the political process.
The only reason this story hangs on was the rifle of choice. If it had been a single shot .223, with scope, probable more accurate by the way, we would not be reading this garbage.
And in the end we have mostly come up with the idea of self congratulation... they do, and say, and apply political pressure for all these things because it makes them feel better about themselves. Since the ego is the center of their universe, they are drawn to ideas that let them say to others "See?! ... I'm a good person because I feel strongly about _________!"
They on the other hand put no genuine thought into the motivations of conservatives. After all, how could they... what could pass for logic and reason when your world view is built around the idea of having lots of emotional lollipops and fuzzy toys of the soul. If a fact were to intrude into the worldview of a real liberal it must either be purged immediately, or sealed into bubble isolated from other issues where it can be the cause of yet another attempt at appeasement of insecurity.
So conservatives genuinely try to understand liberals while liberals accuse conservatives of being meanies, and of eating disabled kittens of color. This is what passes for reasoned debate when you're dealing with people so childish.
So hear again the NYTimes has decided that we're all too stupid to protect ourselves and we need another excuse to give the government more control over our lives.
Imagine my shock and confusion at this strange turn of events.
It reminds that I need to boost my NRA membership drive efforts. We are winning this fight, and that means it is time to push all the harder.
--and what other industry was ever attacked in this manner, "experts"?---
Guns are phallic.
NY Times editors should be all in when it comes to guns.
Ahhh, the smell of red herring in the morning!. Nothing in this bill prevents anyone from suing a manufacturer for a truly defective product. The sad thing is that we have to consider such laws as this.
…Bushmaster XM-15 .223-caliber telescopic rifle - a gleaming civilian version of the Army's basic M-16 assault rifle popular with recreational shooters.
…
…who claimed he somehow "lost" that war weapon…
The barrel extends from a carbine to a target rifle?
I'm no Bushmaster expert, by my interpretation is the writer was either talking about the scope or the stock. He's so ignorant he doesn't know the difference. Oh no! Two diabolical accessories that every deer rifle has. /sarcasm
During the series of shootings, I was wondering if it was a single-shot .223 pistol, like below
That way he could have taken his shot from concealment, stuck it under his jacket, and walked away while everybody was looking for a guy with a big rifle
NYT= lauds "civil rights" while opposing the actual practice thereof, as defined by the Bill of Rights.
"WASHINGTON -- For the first time in four years, the nation's murder rate dropped in 2004, taking it to the lowest level in 40 years, the FBI reported Monday."
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