Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bill would be huge gun-rights win

Jill Zuckman Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON – After years of battle, gun rights advocates are poised to win one of their biggest victories, as the Senate moves toward shielding gun makers, dealers, distributors and importers from liability lawsuits.

A result of increased Republican majorities in Congress, the passage of legal protection for the gun industry would mark an enormous setback for gun control advocates and for leaders of cities such as Chicago, who have filed suit against gun dealers and manufacturers.

It would also be the second dramatic win for the National Rifle Association and its supporters in two years. Last year, a national ban on assault weapons was allowed to expire over the bitter protests of gun control activists.

The gun liability measure, which is expected to pass this weekend, could signal that the tide has decisively turned on gun control, whose high-water mark came in 1994 with passage of the Brady law mandating a waiting period before guns could be purchased. Some Democrats have blamed their recent electoral losses in part on their general support for gun control.

Mike Franc, the vice president of government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, attributed the shift to an increasingly pro-security climate and to Democrats worried about hemorrhaging votes in rural and small-town America.

“In 2004, the Democrats as a party were noticeably silent on those gun issues,” Franc said. “It’s hard to find any races where it was put on the table in a proactive way.”

As recently as last year, Senate Democrats managed to thwart the gun liability bill by attaching amendments, like one extending the assault gun ban, that were so unpalatable to the measure’s supporters that they dropped the bill altogether.

But Senate Republicans won four additional seats in the last election, and that appears to be enough to push the bill through. The House would likely approve the bill if the Senate does, and President Bush has said he would sign it.

Infuriated Democrats on Thursday sought to play up the fact that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., yanked a defense authorization bill from the Senate floor, at a time of war, to push the gun bill through. They’re also livid that Frist used a parliamentary maneuver to prevent them from offering amendments he doesn’t support.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the bill’s chief advocate, has said that gun manufacturers need to be protected; otherwise, they may go out of business, forcing the military to buy its weapons abroad.

The Senate voted 70-30 Thursday to adopt one amendment, with Frist’s assent, that was offered by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., requiring any manufacturer or dealer to provide child safety locks with each handgun purchase.