S. 1805: Don't Help Schumer Kill It (Neal Knox)

Email | 3/1/2004 | Neal Knox

[2banana]

March 1 Neal Knox Update --

The anti-gun crowd’s sole focus right now is killing S. 1805, the renumbered S. 659 gun industry liability protection bill.

So why on Earth are so many panicky gun rights defenders (or people claiming to be) doing everything they can to help the enemy?

Yes, S. 1805 is in danger of being loaded up with anti-gun amendments in the Senate. But anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that the Senate is overloaded with anti-gunners and has been for several years.

The only way to get the bill passed is to get it back to the House, where it can be cleaned up or killed.

The identical House version, H.R. 1036, passed last April 285-140.

The Senate bill has 55 co-sponsors -- five more than necessary for passage. Last week the Schumer-Lautenberg, et al, filibuster failed by 75 votes -- fifteen more votes than the two-thirds necessary to bring it to the floor.

The day the voting started, the White House sent Congress a Statement of Administration Policy calling for a "clean bill" -- one without amendments. That's what President Bush has said he will sign -- which greatly improves the chances of a cleaned Conference Committee bill getting through the Senate.

Sen. Schumer fumed the Bush position will cost 10 or eleven Republican votes against his and Dianne Feinstein's amendments. Let's hope he's right, but I doubt it. Three or four might be enough.

With everything stacked against them, the only way the anti-gunners can kill the bill is to load it down with a bunch of killer amendments -- causing the gun rights people to do what the anti-gun crowd can't do. Kill it -- like our Nervous Nellies are already clamoring to do.

Schumer's "useful idiots" -- some of our people -- are in a panic because Sen. Larry Craig and other pro-gunners signed a "Unanimous Consent Agreement" allowing a series of anti-gun (and pro-gun) amendments to be considered without a string of filibusters.

That's the only way the Senate ever can consider a controversial bill -- but many of those screaming about "Unanimous Consent" think it means the pro-gun side has consented to evil amendments. They haven't.

Sen. Barbara Boxer added an amendment requiring all dealer-sold handguns to be delivered with a safety lock, as most already are.

The Internet is being flooded with emails from people I never heard of -- forwarded by people who should know better -- demanding that S. 1805 be killed because it "contains gun control."

Let me assure you: S. 1805 WILL CONTAIN A LOT MORE GUN CONTROL -- probably including the Feinstein "Assault Weapon" ban and the McCain gun show-killer bill -- before the Senate's final vote.

But I want the Senate to hold their noses and send it back to the House, warts and all.

The letters going out right now from misled gun owners to their Senators, telling them to vote against S. 1805, were probably drafted in the offices of "Americans for Gun Safety" and Handgun Control Inc.

If not, they might as well have been.

As most of you know, I have been personally involved in every Federal gun rights battle since 1966 -- as founding editor of Gun Week, editor of Handloader and Rifle, Executive Director of NRA-ILA, legislative columnist for Guns & Ammo, Shotgun News and other publications, and Vice President of NRA for three years, until Charlton Heston beat me 38-34.

In short, I've been around this block twice. I have never seen such a well-orchestrated campaign to kill a pro-gun bill.

Every Senator who voted FOR the Boxer/Schumer/Feinstein /Kennedy amendments will vote AGAINST the bill. I want to see every Senator who voted AGAINST those amendments to vote FOR an anti-gun bill, and we should let them know that we'll never hold that vote against them.

Because that's the only way we can get the bill to the House, where those amendments can be stripped -- so the United States Arms Industry can survive, and prices on the guns they produce won't continue to skyrocket.

Am I absolutely certain that every anti-gun amendment can be stripped off in the House-Senate Conference? Or else knocked off in House votes?

No, I'm not.

But I AM certain that if they aren't WE CAN KILL THE BILL IN THE HOUSE.

And from what I've been personally told, NRA will lead the effort to kill their own bill if the corruption remains.

Yes, it's dangerous. Passing legislation when the Senate is against us is always dangerous -- and it's difficult, but with the House and White House on our side, it's doable.

Let's show a little courage, friends.

_______________________________________________

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[2banana]

Food for thought...

[Joe Brower]

[dd5339]

Well reasoned thoughts from Mr. Knox.

Semper Fi

[Travis McGee]

Neal Knox is a heavyweight. I don't know enough about politics to swear his strategy is correct, but I know enough about Neal Knox to trust his opinion.

What do you all think?

[Mini-14]

Thank you for posting this informative article.

[yarddog]

I generally agree with Knox. The only thing which bothers me is the very best Senators voted against the gun locks, this is contrary to Knox's position.

According to him they should have supported it.

Am I missing something? I readily admit I don't understand all the machinations of the congress.

[Travis McGee]

I don't either, by a long shot.

[Shooter 2.5]

The NRA will lead the fight. The Republicans will try to defeat the anti dem party and the other gun groups won't be mentioned in the media or the debates. If anything goes wrong despite these efforts, the NRA will lose more members, the Republicans will lose the Presidency, the House and the Senate.

Someone who has been highly critical of the NRA wants them to take all the risks.

[blackie]

The Second Amendment...
America's Original Homeland Security!

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists and the democrats are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

[Blood of Tyrants]

The bill can easily be stripped of any gun control amendments BEFORE it gets to vote. Only the most rabid anti-gunners would vote for even the stripped down version.

But Neil is right about one thing, whatever anti-gun legislation that DOES manage to make it through can be and had BETTER be stripped out in committee.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Correction: Only the most rabid anti-gunners would vote AGAINST even the stripped down version.

[Blood of Tyrants]

If you have to buy a gun lock, what is to stop you from walking out the door with your new gun and gunlock and then turning around and getting a refund on the lock?

[yarddog]

I have no idea what the law will actually say but I strongly suspect the BATFags would use such a pattern as an excuse to suspend a dealer's license.

Even if it didn't technically break the law, they could claim it indicated a pattern of disrespect for the rules, which they btw make up themselves.

[45Auto]

We all know what goes on in the US Senate. The "rules of engagement" don't matter much once you have established and understand basic principle: The one rule of the Senate is to get away with whatever you can. Honor, decency, truth, logic, or Constitutional restraint - none of these apply to the Acts of Congress. Its all about money (and power) and its always been the same. Over the two centuries of its existence the money game has been played in the Senate by a long succession of actors - those who "act" like they care about anything other than money and personal aggrandizement. The only way for us on "the outside" to play it is to make sure that "our boys" have been paid of enough to do our bidding. That's the way the RATs do it, and that's the way we must do it: buy enough votes to make sure things go the way we want. I've suggested that to NRA leadership; of course, I got no response, because, while they know how things work, they don't want to "go on record" in such a crass manner. The Brady Boob has bought some Senators and the RKBA advocacy crowd has done the same. Its only a matter of who has put up the most money. There is always "the unexpected", but the financial lines are clearly drawn. In an election year, the bastards (I mean, "those distinguished gentlemen") are more acutely aware of the power of big money to make or break 'em.

[Travis McGee]

I have a request for anybody to take up. I would do it, but my computer is so hosed I can't make the connections when I try to click to the links.

Anyway, over on The High Road (former "The Firing Line") there's a thread going on a wild shootout and fire in Kansas City last week. A man and woman were burned in their home, ammo was cooking off like crazy, there was a huge explosion, a paramedic was shot, possibly by a 50 caliber. Some reports said there was a sniper firing at police and paramedics, but the reports are hazy. The site has been bulldozed flat already.

Can somebody track down this story and post it on FR?

Thanks,

Matt

[B4Ranch]

I do NOT support closing the gun show or gun lock "loophole" because the 2nd Amendment isn't about hunting and sport shooting!

This is what it is about and the electorate knows it but never expect to hear these words spoken by a politician in todays world !!

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

[Joe Brower]

Neal Knox is a smart cookie, he's been in the fight for a long, long time, and his take on things, as far as I have been able to determine, has been spot-on in a great majority of the cases. I believe this is one of them.

He's had his differences with the NRA (which is why he left a while back, as I recall), but his positions here seem to be fairly aligned with what the NRA has been saying so far about these Senatorial shenanigans.

[SevenDaysInMay]

The gunlock sham is to set 2nd Practicitioners of wreckless endangerment in criminal prosecution and civil litigation.

Even if by the smallest amount each time legislation/regulation passes into law, American fascists in office are about damaging citizens' personal liberty so they can more safely rule America.

Rule us they shall IFF we do not fight them every step everywhere.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Sounds like a nut who went off the deep end, set a fire in the house across the street and then ambushed the firefighters who showed up. If they are making a huge deal ou tof it, they need to tighten their tinfoil hats.

[Dixie Mom]

there's a thread going on a wild shootout and fire in Kansas City last week. A man and woman were burned in their home, ammo was cooking off like crazy, there was a huge explosion, a paramedic was shot, possibly by a 50 caliber. Some reports said there was a sniper firing at police and paramedics, but the reports are hazy. The site has been bulldozed flat already.

Can somebody track down this story and post it on FR?

FR thread here (check out post #56):  House Explosion and Shooting in South Kansas City