Gearing up
Gun lobby sets sights on weapons restrictions:
The gun lobby is marshaling its forces for an all-out assault this year to weaken key gun-control laws and shield weapons makers from liability in lawsuits.
“Major advances for the NRA are within reach this year,” said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University of New York and author of a book on the politics of gun control. “With the most sympathetic administration ever, the gun rights groups will have all their chips on the table.”
Over the next weeks and months, the pro-gun lobby is expected to play those chips in a friendly, Republican-controlled Congress, pushing ahead on an agenda that has gun control forces on the defensive. Congress will consider proposals that would:
Amend a law that now allows FBI gun-buyer background checks to be kept for 90 days after a sale. The new law would require their destruction after 24 hours.
Provide immunity from liability to gun makers and dealers in civil lawsuits in federal court.
Extend the 10-year-old law banning semi-automatic assault weapons that expires in September. House Republican leaders oppose any effort to extend the ban.
I don’t think gun owners have the most gun friendly administration ever. Bush said he’d sign the Assault Weapons Ban. ‘Nuff said. The ban doesn’t ban semi-automatic assault weapons, it bans features they can have.
My favorite is this tidbit:
Given Washington’s domination by the GOP, “the most the gun control advocates can hope for is to maintain the status quo,” said Kristen Goss, a Georgetown University professor, who is writing a book on the history of the gun control movement.
The enemy is scared. The article also points out that the rifle used by the DC snipers wasn’t banned by the Assault Weapons Ban. Actually, it says:
The Bushmaster XM15 used in the Washington-area sniper attacks, for example, may be sold even though it is a similar version of the AR15 assault rifle banned under the law.
Implying that those rascally gun makers are up to something nefarious.
January 13th, 2004 at 5:17 pm
“I don’t think gun owners have the most gun friendly administration ever. Bush said he’d sign the Assault Weapons Ban. ‘Nuff said.”
I disagree. Has any prior administration indicated it would do otherwise? Dubya will sign almost anything that makes it to his desk, so his statement that he would sign this bill means relatively little. Unlike his predecessor, Bush doesn’t seem to be trying very hard to get the bill through in the first place.