Senate Kills Amended Industry Lawsuit Bill
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
In a crushing vote of 90-8, the US Senate has killed S-1805, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, after the legislation became bogged down with anti-gun amendments that critics called “poison pills.”
S-1805 was the version of the liability bill actually put to a vote although a slightly different version of the same measure, S-659, was most often referenced in media and organizational reports. In April 2003, the House of Representatives passed a “clean” version of the bill by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 285-140.
The final Mar. 2 vote stunned anti-gun organizations, which had been celebrating passage of several gun control amendments only hours before. Having reportedly presumed they would get a bill loaded with restrictive amendments, the tidal wave vote to kill the bill left them gasping.
It also surprised the media, when it became evident that both sides so wanted the final bill to fail that only eight votes could be mustered to support the heavily-amended version.
Among the most onerous amendments was a 10-year extension of the so-called assault weapons ban by a 52-47 vote, and an attempt to close what anti-gunners called the “gun show loophole” on a 53-46 vote. (Complete Senate roll call votes appear on Page 11 of this issue.)
Defeat of the bill means that, for the time being, attempts to extend the semi-auto ban have been derailed, although Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), told Gun Week, “The problem we now face is that in the Senate, the votes are there to pass the ban renewal and kill gun shows as we know them. We can expect to see the gun grabbers offer these amendments to other bills between now and the end of the year.”
Defeat of the measure came as the National Rifle Association (NRA) and CCRKBA maintained a hard line against passage of the bill with any amendments. For days prior to the Senate debate, rumors had circulated across the Internet that the NRA was “caving in” and had made “back room deals” to allow the legislation to pass with the “assault weapon” renewal amendment attached.
NRA leadership put the lie to that rumor in a letter it sent to each member of the Senate minutes before a final vote was taken. In that letter, signed by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, they advised senators that the organization opposed final passage of the bill.
“(W)e have said from the start,” they wrote, “that we would not allow this bill to become a vehicle for added restrictions on the law-abiding people of America.”
After the vote, LaPierre told Gun Week, “I think we did the right thing. Every gunowner should understand that we kept our word, we kept faith with them. We said clean bill or no bill and we wouldn’t allow any bill that extended the Clinton gun ban to see the light of day.”
This was hardly a sudden decision. Weeks before the Senate debate began, LaPierre told Gun Week that if anti-gunners began hanging unacceptable amendments on the bill—especially to extend the semi-auto ban and regulate gun shows out of existence—NRA would fight to kill the measure. When the rumors about an NRA “sell-out” surfaced, CCRKBA leaders took the rare step to issue a public rebuke, slamming those rumors as false.
In the final hours of debate, as it became evident the legislation was being overwhelmed with anti-gun amendments, Gottlieb, LaPierre and Cox conferred about strategy, and concluded that the gun rights community would be better off with no bill than the one that the Senate appeared poised to pass. Even with the prospect that every one of the amendments would be stripped off the bill when it went back to the House, the decision was made to push for Senate rejection.
Almost simultaneously as the LaPierre-Cox letter was being delivered to members of the Senate, CCRKBA issued a statement calling upon the Senate to kill the amended measure.
“While we need the Senate to pass a bill providing protection for the firearms industry from frivolous, nuisance lawsuits,” Gottlieb told senators, “we need a clean bill that is not used as a tool by anti-gunners on Capitol Hill to add further restrictions on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
“We have seen from the votes today that Tom Daschle and the Democrats have talked about supporting gun rights, but their votes today prove once again they cannot be trusted to protect and defend those rights,” Gottlieb said. “They are using a legitimate piece of legislation as a Trojan Horse in an attempt to further encumber America’s law-abiding firearms owners.”
CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron added, “For months, Daschle and the Democrats have been working overtime in an attempt to convince gun-owning Americans that they have changed their positions on gun rights issues. Today’s votes prove that’s a lie. They only changed their message, not their agenda, which is to support additional restrictions on shooters, hunters and firearms collectors, and to maintain a law that 10 years worth of history has proven to have had no effect on crime.”
Shoulder to Shoulder
LaPierre told Gun Week that he was delighted NRA and CCRKBA stood together to defeat the amended bill.
“Were it not for the leading organizations in this country that stand up for the Second Amendment,” he observed, “we would be right where England and Australia are today. We had a good partnership. . . . I just hope that gunowners are proud about their organizations. We’re not about Washington, DC, politics, we’re not about inside deals, we’re about doing what’s right for the Second Amendment and that’s what we did today.”
LaPierre added that the recorded votes cast by each senator stand as a “benchmark” going into the November elections. He said these votes can be used to “defeat the gun-banners and add some more pro-Second Amendment senators.” That accomplished, he predicted, “we can come back early next year and pass this bill into law.”
“We will be back,” he vowed, “to save the American firearms industry.”
Both Gottlieb and LaPierre had harsh words for Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) who—along with Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), his Democratic primary rival—broke away from his presidential campaign on “Super Tuesday” to be on the Senate floor and deliver what amounted to be a campaign speech.
In his remarks, Kerry stated, “I enjoy hunting and I believe in the Second Amendment, as it has been interpreted in this country.”
But, he contended, by allowing the semi-auto ban to expire, and by not imposing restrictions on gun shows, it would “place military-style assault weapons into the hands of terrorists and/or criminals.”
In reaction, Gottlieb noted, “John Kerry, who has missed 70% of his votes in the 108th Congress, took time away from his presidential campaign to show up and vote against the rights of gun-owning Americans.”
And LaPierre observed, “He flew back to destroy the gun industry. Gunowners are savvy enough to know that what counts are votes, not talk. John Kerry voted to put the American firearms industry out of business, extend the Clinton gun ban and shut down gun shows.”
“The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association established in 1961, that had strongly advocated passage of the legislation, estimated that its members have spent approximately $150 million defending lawsuits it describes as frivolous because they seek to blame federally licensed firearm manufacturers for the actions of criminals who misuse lawfully sold, non-defective firearms to commit crimes.
“While we are disappointed by today’s developments we remain confident there is sufficient bipartisan support in the Congress to pass common sense legal reform that will put a stop to predatory lawsuits that threaten to destroy our industry and put tens of thousands of Americans out of work,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF vice president and general counsel. Keane noted that even President Bush, who supports an extension of the ban on certain semi-automatic firearms despite the fact it has not reduced crime as promised by the Clinton Administration, wanted the Senate to pass the bill without any contentious amendments. The Fraternal Order of Police, which supports an extension of the so-called assault weapon ban, wrote the Senate urging that the issue not be taken up as part of the pending legislation.
Champion Craig
Throughout days of debate, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig emerged as a champion of the pro-gun legislation, rebutting the often shrill hysterics of Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the emotional statements from California’s Dianne Feinstein and repeated barrages from Rhode Island’s Jack Reed.
Craig, who sponsored S-1805 and who serves on the NRA’s board of directors, earned kudos from the gun rights community. LaPierre called Craig’s leadership “magnificent” and “spectacular,” and CCRKBA Public Affairs Director John Snyder applauded Craig’s “humility and courage” for calling upon the Senate to reject his own bill after all the amendments had been added.
Craig was not available to speak with Gun Week.
Capitol Hill sources told Gun Week that both NRA and CCRKBA were surprised by the anti-gun votes of New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg. Less surprising, at least to Gottlieb, was the about-face from South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, who had earlier made much of his support for the gun liability bill. Daschle voted in favor of the semi-auto ban extension and restrictions on gun shows. Two years ago, Gottlieb co-authored a book about Daschle.
“The one thing that gunowners learned from this experience is that the Democratic leadership cannot be trusted,” Gottlieb stated. “That goes especially for Sen. Tom Daschle. While he pledged to pass the bill, he spent his time working the floor to pass poison pill amendments so the bill would be killed on a final vote. In my opinion, there is no bigger snake in the US Senate.”
LaPierre, commenting on many senators who have been proclaiming their support for gun rights, put it bluntly, “If you’re gonna talk the talk, you better walk the walk.”
The NRA executive predicted that this vote will hurt Kerry in November, if he emerges as the Democratic nominee, which seems a certainty following his overwhelming success in the Super Tuesday (Mar. 2) primaries.
Ban Extension
Alluding to Gottlieb’s concerns that the Senate vote on extending the Clinton semi-auto ban could be added as an amendment to any number of other bills considered between now and the end of the year, LaPierre stated, “NRA will work as hard as we can to build a firewall in the House of Representatives to assure the Clinton gun ban is sunsetted.”
That ban, passed in 1994—the last year Democrats held a majority in Congress—is due to pass into history on Sept. 13. Along with semi-auto firearms, the ban also covers ammunition magazines that carry more than 10 cartridges.
Many anti-gunners had acknowledged that adding it as an amendment to the industry lawsuit bill probably afforded them their best chance of getting that ban extended. While the final Senate vote killing the liability bill derailed their intentions, that derailment may only be temporary. Anti-gun Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has already indicated she will renew her attempts to extend the semi-auto ban, even it if sunsets in September, as now seems more likely.
Feinstein was one of those anti-gun Democrats who were left literally speechless when the vote came on the final bill. She and others who had supported the anti-gun amendments apparently believed they had a sure thing. She admitted to reporters that “This scenario never entered my mind.”
LaPierre appeared confident that the ban will die in the House, where it faces an uphill battle among members of Congress, all of whom are up for re-election this fall. House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) has repeatedly said that there are not enough votes for passage in that house of Congress and no vote is likely to be scheduled.
The White House had earlier said President Bush would sign the lawsuit protection bill if it came to his desk, but made it clear a week before the vote that it wanted a “clean bill” with no amendments.
Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), another NRA board member, said after the vote, “The United States Senate today showed yet again why it is often referred to as a ‘Club,’ rather than a truly deliberative body that considers, understands, and passes significant legislation. The legislation in question today was a bill that would have simply stopped further anti-firearms lawsuits against lawful firearms manufacturers and retailers for subsequent criminal misuse of their products. No other manufacturer or retailer is liable for a criminal taking their product and misusing it. . . . “The ultimate losers in this vote are law-abiding firearms retailers and consumers.”
Keane called upon the leadership of both parties in the Senate and the White House to “find a way to protect a law-abiding and responsible industry and the jobs of tens of thousands of honest, hard-working Americans from frivolous lawsuits.”
“Congress needs to follow the lead of over 30 states that have already enacted similar legal reforms to stop lawsuit abuse and restore integrity to the nation’s judicial system,” said Keane.
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