For the record, my position on gun control remains, "If ANYBODY has one, I want one too."
The "Politics over principle" Quote of note:
"The president is between multiple rocks and hard places if this gets to his desk,'' said veteran gun-industry representative Richard Feldman, author of the forthcoming book "Ricochet: Power Politics and the Gun Lobby.''If the bill came to him with the amendments attached and Bush signed it, gun enthusiasts might have abandoned him in November. If he vetoed the bill, it would have fed Democratic charges that he isn't trustworthy, Feldman said.
The "Who's government is it anyway?" Quote of note:
"While we will continue to work to save the U.S. firearms industry, we have said from the start that we would not allow this bill to become a vehicle for added restrictions on the law-abiding people of America," NRA Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre Jr. said.
Gun liability bill shot down in Senate
Defeat comes after assault-ban proposal passes
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle
Washington -- Senate Republicans shot down their own bill protecting the gun industry from lawsuits on Tuesday, saying it had been compromised by amendments, including the slim passage of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's measure to renew the 10-year-old assault weapons ban.
The day's developments in the legislative fight over the role of guns in American society left the fate of the attached measures in doubt. That could be especially ominous for the weapons ban, which is due to expire Sept. 13, unless Congress passes a renewal and President Bush signs it.
The legislative wrangling made clear that gun control, which has hardly been mentioned in the presidential primaries, will become an issue in this year's contest. That was brought into focus Tuesday when Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards interrupted their Democratic primary campaigns to return to the Capitol and help pass the gun-control amendments.
Republicans had expected to win approval of the liability measure, which would bar lawsuits such as those San Francisco and other California cities have filed against gunmakers.
Bush had urged lawmakers to avoid amending the measure, saying he would veto the bill unless it emerged as a single-issue piece of legislation.
But Bush, as a candidate in 2000 and through a spokesman recently, had pledged to sign a renewal to the assault-weapons ban if it reached his desk. When Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pushed their plan to attach the assault-weapons renewal as an amendment to the liability bill, it put pressure on the White House to remain true to the president's pledge.
Posted by P6 at March 3, 2004 08:15 AM
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