http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,1413,96~3750~2536064,00.html
November 15, 2004
PETER URBAN
"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.