First up, is this from the AP (via Publicola):

The demise of Republican gun legislation in the Senate and a stalemate over renewing the assault-style weapons ban thrusts gun control squarely into the fall presidential campaign, both sides in the debate say.

The Senate voted 90-8 on Tuesday to scuttle a GOP-sponsored bill that would have given gunmakers liability protection against lawsuits. The vote came after Democrats gained enough Republican support to amend the bill to extend the assault-weapons ban and to require background checks for gun show purchases.

Those provisions caused the National Rifle Association to withdraw its support for the bill, and Senate Republican leaders decided to kill it.

The vote gave Democrats and gun control advocates an unexpected victory in the GOP-controlled Congress and all but eliminated any chance for passage this year of gun legislation. The gunmaker liability bill was a priority for President Bush. It would have shielded gunmakers from suits stemming from use of a gun in a crime.

The anti-gunners are spinning this as a victory. And I will too. See, there’s pretty much a minimal chance of gun control legislation taking center stage this year because politicos don’t like controversial issues during election years.

And a nice little lie from DiFi:

“You can be sure it’s going to be in the presidential campaign as a bona fide issue as to whether the American people want AK-47s, street sweepers and Uzis sold once again,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the chief sponsors of the assault weapons ban.

AK47s, street sweepers and Uzis aren’t sold any way. Semi-auto versions of AKs and Uzis are but the street sweeper is outright banned.

And DiFi vows to continue trying:

“If we don’t get this assault weapons legislation signed into law and it lapses, we will come back with another piece,” Feinstein said.

And the VPC admits the ban is pointless:

Senate action renewing the current federal assault weapons ban will do little to protect America’s police and public from assault weapons, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) warned today. The measure was passed as an amendment to a Senate bill granting America’s firearms industry limited immunity from lawsuits.

“This bill merely continues the badly flawed 1994 ban, which is a ban in name only,” states Kristen Rand, VPC legislative director. “The 1994 law in theory banned AK-47s, MAC-10s, UZIs, AR-15s and other assault weapons. Yet the gun industry easily found ways around the law and most of these weapons are now sold in post-ban models virtually identical to the guns Congress sought to ban in 1994. At the same time, the gun industry has aggressively marketed new assault-weapon types-such as the Hi-Point Carbine used in the 1999 Columbine massacre-that are frequently used in crime. Reenacting this eviscerated ban without improving it will do little to protect the lives of law enforcement officers and other innocent Americans. Now is the time for Americans to demand that Congress and the Bush Administration roll up their sleeves and enact a truly effective assault weapons ban.” [For more information, see the VPC backgrounder Why Merely Renewing the Current Assault Weapons “Ban” Will Not Stop the Sale of Assault Weapons.

Yet, DiFi and other VPC cronies argued that this bill was so important with respect to violent crime just, uhm, yesterday. Odd.

Posted in uncategorized on March 3rd, 2004 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |