2005 NEWSPAPER EDITORIALS AGAINST
GUN INDUSTRY IMMUNITY
• April 15, 2005 – Houston Chronicle: “GUN POWER: NRA should use its expertise to
curb accidental shootings, violence”
• April 15, 2005 – The Buffalo News: “Bulletproof gun industry”
• April 13, 2005 – Winston-Salem Journal: “Guns and Responsibility”
• April 13, 2005 – The Philadelphia Inquirer: “No free pass for killers’ armorers”
• April 13, 2005 – The Oregonian: “Don’t bulletproof the gun industry”
• April 12, 2005 – Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: “Cover for gun industry”
• April 11, 2005 – Los Angeles Times: “Remember Gun Control?”
• April 10, 2005 – Nashville Tennessean: “Shoot down gun immunity”
• April 9, 2005 – New York Times: “Congress Fetches for the Gun Lobby”
• April 9, 2005 – Kansas City Star: “Cover for gun industry”
• April 5, 2005 – Eugene Register Guard: “Stand up to the NRA: Congress should reject
immunity for gunmakers”
• April 5, 2005 – Chicago Tribune: “The NRA captures Washington”
• April 5, 2005 – Christian Science Monitor: “Guns: A Dealer’s Responsibility”
• April 5, 2005 – Sarasota Herald Tribune: “NRA back on the attack”
• April 4, 2005 – New York Times: “Guns for Terrorists”
• April 3, 2005 – The Roanoke Times: “Gun lobby seeks pre-emptive legal immunity”
• April 2, 2005 – Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Fatally flawed gun bill”
• April 1, 2005 – St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “GUN CONTROL: No immunity for dealers”
• March 28, 2005 – Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Editorial: Preserve gun lawsuits”
• March 25, 2005 – Boston Globe: “Deadly aims”
• March 23, 2005 – Hartford Courant: “No Immunity For Gun Dealers”
• March 14, 2005 – Dayton Daily News: “Gun toadies half-cocked, yet again”

1.  Toady A servant to more popular kids in schools mostly, but also sometimes found in the workplace. Toady has been around forever man. Tell one of the toadies to bring me a beer! Fuckin toadies, hook my up with some change. Source: raecerex, May 6, 2004

ETA:  I use.... "The toadies of VPC and The Brady Bunch wrote a lot of anti-gun articles on APril 13th."

Actually, IIRC, a "toady" was an assistant to a seller of patent medicines. Toads were widely believed to be poisonous. As part of the medicine show, the salesman's toady would eat a toad, take a swig of the miracle medicine (doubtless guaranteed to cure any ailment) and display himself alive and (but for his dignity) healthy. Hence, a toady is a person who will degrade himself to whatever degree is neccessary to please his superiors; the verb "to toady" or "to toady up" meaning, of course, "to act like a toady."

Found the text at the Brady Bunch in a PDF.

http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/0405/immunity/2005editorials.pdf

(link left cold)

Hold your nose before reading this steaming pile of bullshit.


EDITORIAL – March 14, 2005

Gun Toadies half-cocked, once again

By the Dayton Daily News

A year has passed since moderates in the U.S. Senate handed the gun lobby an embarrassing, much-deserved public comeuppance on a bill designed to put gun makers and dealers above the law.

Under that legislation, the industry received immunity of a kind once reserved to kings and queens. Gun makers and dealers would be answerable to virtually no one for a broad range of misdeeds. Rogues whose gross negligence frequently puts guns in the hands of dangerous criminals couldn't be pursued by victims of crime in court.

Proponents said the legislation was needed to prevent "frivolous" lawsuits. The actual language in the bill,
though, made no such distinction. Lawsuits would be barred no matter how firm the proof or compelling the merits.

No special interest in the history of American jurisprudence - not even charities, which once enjoyed broad immunity from being sued- had ever been offered such far-reaching protections.

The legislation had considerable support. When the National Rifle Association says jump, many in Congress salute and ask, "How high?" It sailed through the U.S. House of Representatives.

But it met a different fate in the Senate. There, the gun lobby was forced to show its true colors on live
television. It wasn't pretty.

Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine, a former prosecutor and a defender of the right to bear arms, approached the issue from the standpoint of gun safety, personal responsibility and fundamental fairness to victims of crime. He gave a compelling speech when the bill was debated, showing how the bill failed on all three counts.

Then he and other relatively moderate Republican members - including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and John Warner of Virginia - supported some amendments that said to the industry, if you want this sweeping immunity, you will have to accept some modest safety improvements for your products.

Gun locks would have to be included with all sales of fire arms. The federal ban on assault weapons sales that was set to expire would be extended. A big loophole would be closed in the federal law that requires
background checks when guns are purchased.

The gun lobbyists said no way to the safety amendments. They instructed their fawning following of lawmakers to reverse course and vote against the bill. It was a stunning turn of events, one that rendered the lobbyists a laughingstock.

Now they want the last laugh. They are back with largely the same bill, only this time it's worse. This one would make much of the industry immune not just to lawsuits, but also to actions by government regulators.

The bill as been put on the Senate calendar. The committee process has been bypassed and the bill could be brought up any time.

Moderates should give it the bum's rush - with both of Ohio's senators offering strong leadership.

Find this article at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/opinion/content/opinion/daily/0314guns.htm