Quote of note:

What irony that the NRA once again invoked the 2nd Amendment, which was intended to preserve the states' right to maintain "a well-regulated militia."

The National Guard is the modern incarnation of the state militias that the framers of the Constitution had in mind. Its failure to protect New Orleans had nothing to do with a lack of a lawsuit shield for gun manufacturers and everything to do with this administration depleting the local National Guards through deployment to Iraq while dragging its feet in responding to a natural disaster at home.

Nevertheless, the hurricane has proved a wonderful cover for politicians, including 59 House Democrats, to stay on the right side of the gun lobby and its massive campaign support.

Bulletproof protection for the gun industry
Robert Scheer
October 25, 2005

MAYBE IT'S because I recently was awakened by a volley of gunshots that resulted in the death of an innocent college student — a budding leader in her community — that I am so outraged that Congress has decided to grant the gun lobby its most fervent and irresponsible wish: blanket immunity from civil lawsuits.

That protection, offered to no other industry, was assured last week when the House ratified a bill, previously passed by the Senate, shielding gun manufacturers and retailers from civil lawsuits by the victims of gun violence. The bill, now heading to the president's desk for certain approval, is a reward to the National Rifle Assn. and the rest of the gun industry lobby for doing so much to put the Republican Party in power.

Although the Senate passed the bill with the Bush administration's blessing before Hurricane Katrina, the gun lobby is justifying its victory as a logical response to the breakdown of civil order in the aftermath of the storm.

When "no police protection was available, [New Orleans residents were] defending their lives and their property with a firearm," said NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, who labeled the new legislation a "historic victory for the NRA."