Posted on 11/16/2004 11:30:43 AM PST by neverdem
Assault weapons ban renewal unlikely in Congress
WASHINGTON — Gun-control advocates lost ground in the 2004 elections, ending any shot that Congress will renew a federal ban on assault weapons in the next two years.
"My general reading is that neither side wants it to come up," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4.
The 10-year-old ban, which Shays co-authored, outlawed 19 semi-automatic weapons as well as guns with certain military-style features such as folding stocks, bayonet mounts or flash suppressors.
A clause directed that the ban expire in September 2004 unless Congress specifically reauthorized it.
That did not happen.
House Republican leaders refused to bring the issue to a floor vote and proponents garnered only a third of the 218 signatures needed to force the issue.
The Senate voted 52-47 in favor of a 10-year extension of the ban, as an amendment offered to another bill.
The Senate's pro-ban majority, however, has turned.
Seven of nine newly elected members to the Senate oppose the ban, and another would only support a more narrowly defined ban. They replace senators who voted six to three in favor of the ban.
If all else held true, the switches would result in the Senate rejecting the ban 48 to 52.
Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who missed the vote, opposed the original 1994 ban as a member of the House.
Connecticut Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman, both Democrats, support the ban.
Shays said that some supporters of the ban may be reluctant to bring the issue up again, fearing that a public showdown would make them targets of the National Rifle Association in the next election.
Of the 251 NRA-endorsed candidates running in the election, 241 won seats in the house, including 20 freshmen.
"This election was crucial for the Second Amendment," said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. "The NRA stands for freedom, our members are defenders of freedom and we are proud to see that gun owners across the country came out and voted for freedom."
The NRA's Political Victory Fund spent nearly $2 million in October in support of six Senate candidates, five of whom were elected. Most importantly, Republican John Thune of South Dakota defeated the sitting Senate minority leader.
"It cost Tom Daschle his job, absolutely," said Larry Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shootings Sports Foundation in Newtown, Conn.
The NRA and NSSF targeted Daschle because he encouraged Senate Democrats to support the assault weapons amendment although he knew it would undermine passage of the underlying bill to prohibit civil lawsuits against gun manufacturers, distributors, dealers or importers for damages resulting from the misuse of their products by others.
Daschle was one of 55 co-sponsors of the underlying bill.
"We were very disappointed with his double dealing," Keane said.
The Senate also voted 53-46 in favor of an amendment offered by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to require criminal background checks on all firearms transactions occurring at gun shows. The proposal was also considered a "poison pill" but with the Senate switches the amendment would likely be defeated.
The NRA Victory Fund spent more than $334,000 in October on television advertising to defeat Daschle, according to the Federal Election Commission. Keane said his group also launched a targeted mailing against him.
Gun manufacturers believe Congress will approve the tort reform bill next year.
"We think we are much closer now," said Keane, whose group represents the gun industry.
Keane expects the bill will have the support of most of the newly elected senators, which could give them the 60-vote majority needed to prevent opponents from staging a filibuster.
The House is already solidly in favor of the bill. In April 2003, they approved it, 285-140. Reps. Rob Simmons, R-2, Nancy Johnson, R-5, and John Larson, D-1, voted in favor. Shays and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, voted against it.
"The bill will clearly pass the House again and with the pick-ups in the Senate I think we'll have it there too," Keane said.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence disputes the gains claimed by the NRA, noting that both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates support the ban on assault weapons.
Moreover, they note that Democrat John Kerry
whom the NRA opposed
defeated President Bush in six states with large numbers of NRA members: Maine, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
"For the extreme gun lobby to lose the battleground states that it lost, I have to believe that their post-election spin is about as wobbly as it can get," said Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "This is a show of continued marginalizing for the gun lobby, not a show of force."
Although Daschle lost, Brady said that 13 other senators who voted to renew the assault weapons ban were re-elected.
Gun rights advocates, however, are looking forward to easing restrictions on firearms.
Gun Owners of America has already published a wish list of gun control laws it wants repealed, including: a ban on machine guns, the Brady background check law, prohibitions on firearms within 1,000 feet of school property, and a Washington, D.C. gun ban.
"The ultimate objective is not merely to elect good people; we must also work to restore lost ground," the group said.
Shays said Congress has been reluctant to consider most firearms bills
whether they are pro- or anti-.
In the House, gun bills typically get sent to die in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security headed by Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C. In all, 28 bills were sent there in the 108th Congress and none moved forward.
Indeed, the last time the committee held a hearing on firearms legislation was before Coble took over as chairman. The hearing on May 27, 1999 came in the wake of the school shootings in Littleton, Colo. and Conyers, Ga.
Coble, who was a member of the committee at the time, urged restraint.
"When indefensible and inexcusable acts of violence erupt, such as was recently done in Georgia and Colorado, I think we are prone to rush to judgment, overreact. But it is my belief, that tight, rigid, inflexible gun control laws do not result in a diminished or lower rate of crime," Coble said.
Coble said that advocates for greater regulation of firearm purchases are well intentioned, but the Brady bill and other restrictions do little if anything to curb violent crime.
"Criminals will still have access to guns, while responsible citizens may be unnecessarily inconvenienced," he said.
Coble does support limiting access to firearms for people with criminal records or a history of psychiatric problems.
The House considered two firearms bills in the 108th Congress. Aside from the lawsuit liability bill, the House voted 250-171 to repeal the D.C. gun ban. The Senate has not considered the bill.
Peter Urban, who covers Washington, can be reached by e-mail at purban@ctpost.com.
And good riddance!
Thank God for that. And thank God that Kerry wasn't elected since he and his Liberal jackwit pals wanted nothing more than to disarm even more law-abiding Americans!
Kerry's excuse for more gun control? He claimed that our unfettered Second Amendment rights only benefitted terrorists!
Boy, does THIS drive the Libs nuts !!!
Gun rights a winner in the election
Good post, and as usual, I learned something new I didn't know (knowledge is good). I learned that PUSSY RINO Shays co-sponsored the original, so-called Assault Weapons Ban. Isn't that special? We, and our NRA, and other pro-2nd Amendment groups need to target ALL of these RINOs (Snowe, Shays, Chafee, McCain, etc.) for EXTINCTION in 2006.
Battle Over Senator Arlen Specter Heating Up -- Please ask President Bush to oppose Specter as Judiciary Committee Chairman
Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408 http://www.gunowners.org
Monday, November 15, 2004
Your calls and e-mails have been burning up the Capitol Hill phone lines and computer terminals!
Senators once believed the elevation of anti-gun trial-lawyer-stooge Arlen Specter to the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee was a "given." But no more.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter would have jurisdiction over:
* Virtually all gun-related legislation -- a troubling development, given his extensive support for gun control (lock-up-your-safety, gun show bans, semi-auto import bans, the Lautenberg amendment, etc.);
* Legislation to relieve gun manufacturers of frivolous lawsuits -- an unfortunate fact, given his indentured status to American trial lawyers; and
* All judicial nominations, including the two to four Supreme Court nominations expected to come up over the next few years.
On the issue of nominations, it turns out that Specter promised the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, prior to his reelection, that he would block all "extremists" nominated for the federal bench. The Post-Gazette fails to define "extremists," but the term is usually used by the liberal media to describe conservative activists (who also happen to be "gun nuts").
Perhaps even more troubling, Specter, assuming no one would find out about his Post-Gazette interview, appears to have subsequently lied about his views.
ACTION: Please contact President George W. Bush. Ask him to oppose the elevation of anti-gun Senator Arlen Specter to the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
You can use the pre-written message below and send it as an e-mail by visiting the GOA Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm on the GOA website.
Also, check out Larry Pratt's article on Arlen Specter at the National Review Online website. Simply go to http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/pratt200411150904.asp to read the editorial.
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear President Bush:
Less than 24 hours after the presidential election, Arlen Specter was warning you not to nominate pro-gun conservatives for the two to four anticipated slots expected to be available on the U.S. Supreme Court.
He now says that he was misunderstood, and that he was only trying to warn you about impending Democratic filibusters.
Obviously, he was hoping you would never find out about the promises he had made -- before the election -- indicating he would oppose your "extremist" judges.
Consider the promise he made to the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- a promise which was instrumental in getting the endorsement of that newspaper on October 24, 2004:
"The best argument for [Specter's] staying on is his seniority, which puts him in line to be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that capacity, he would be in a position to block some of the ideologically extreme federal judges likely to be nominated by President Bush in a second term, some of them for the Supreme Court. Before the Post-Gazette editorial board, he promised that no extremists would be approved for the bench."
The last thing we need is for pro-gun Supreme Court nominees to be blocked by a Republican senator who votes like a liberal Democrat.
Please do what you can to stop Arlen Specter from being named as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Boy, does THIS drive the Libs nuts !!!
Pointing out that the NRA is the oldest and largest civil rights organization drives them crazy too.
"Moreover, they note that Democrat John Kerry
whom the NRA opposed defeated President Bush in six states with large numbers of NRA members: Maine, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania..."
This is choice. And what happened in the other 44 states with large NRA memberships?
Kudos to GOA for getting the ball rolling. I think that all of these are worthy of chasing after -- I would really like to see good blizzard of pro-gun legislation as long as it doesn't dissipate our strength on going after too much at one time.
I also think that the real key is to repeal the 1968 GCA and the 1934 NFA. Getting rid of the 1968 GCA will really put a kink in all the gun control laws that depend on it and I think that is the right one to start a campaign against.
The NRA's project of ending the frivolous liability lawsuits against gun manufacturers is also a good one, and I think that they will probably succeed in pushing this one through before we get any of the repeals done.
"In November 2004, Senator McCain received over 76% of the vote and will begin serving his fourth term in January 2005." Just google McCain+re-elected+2004
Much as I would like to agree with you, until there are enough pubbies in the Senate to make their votes superfluous, voting these folks out in primary elections only to lose in the general election would be cutting our nose to spite our face. That could promote the election of an even more pro gun control dems.
However, as an exception to the rule, it's especially annoying with the Specter problem. Toomey had a good shot in the general election. Union members were encouraged to re-register as pubbies in order to vote in the primary against Toomey. Someone smarter than me said, "politics is the art of the possible."
BTTT
Yep, Kerry was shown holding shotguns and shooting them for target and an innocent Goose.
Then, you know that their focus groups told the rats to back away from this issue.
Sadly, I know you're right, at least where McLib is concerned. Wishful thinking on my part. We should go after the ones we can realistically get rid of though.
ping!
The fact that the Rats nominated as their Senate Minority Leader a pro-Gun, anti-abortion guy from Nevada says a lot.
However, I won't let the trimmings fool me. While the Dems may have SOME pro-gun people, their agenda hasn't changed any - just their tactics.
The Kennedys, Boxers, Feinsteins, Schumers, Clintons, Corzines, etc. still run their party. And as long as they do, their ultimate objectives haven't changed.
We will see a lot of window dressing of the rats.
That is all it is, window dressing!
hehehe.....
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