Posted: 1/14/2004 2:50:17 PM EDT
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www.newhousenews.com/archive/cohen011404.html Gun Lobby Sets Sights on Weapons Restrictions BY ROBERT COHEN c.2004 Newhouse News Service WASHINGTON -- The gun lobby is marshaling its forces for an all-out assault this year to weaken key gun-control laws and shield weapons makers from liability in lawsuits. "Major advances for the NRA are within reach this year," said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University of New York and author of a book on the politics of gun control. "With the most sympathetic administration ever, the gun rights groups will have all their chips on the table." Over the next weeks and months, the pro-gun lobby is expected to play those chips in a friendly, Republican-controlled Congress, pushing ahead on an agenda that has gun control forces on the defensive. Congress will consider proposals that would: -- Amend a law that now allows FBI gun-buyer background checks to be kept for 90 days after a sale. The new law would require their destruction after 24 hours. -- Provide immunity from liability to gun makers and dealers in civil lawsuits in federal court. -- Extend the 10-year-old law banning semi-automatic assault weapons that expires in September. House Republican leaders oppose any effort to extend the ban. Given Washington's domination by the GOP, "the most the gun control advocates can hope for is to maintain the status quo," said Kristen Goss, a Georgetown University professor who is writing a book on the history of the gun control movement. The impending battles over the nation's gun laws loom as the 2004 presidential campaign heads to the primaries, though the issue has gotten little attention from the Democratic candidates. Front-runner Howard Dean had a reputation as a friend of the National Rifle Association while governor of Vermont, but he and the other Democratic candidates oppose granting gun makers immunity from civil lawsuits, and all support renewing the assault weapons ban. President Bush supports both the immunity-from-liability proposal and the plan to allow for a more expedited destruction of gun-buyer records. But he surprised his allies in the gun rights community last year by saying he would sign a renewal of the assault weapons ban. That measure first would have to get to his desk. And House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he does not expect the measure to even reach the House floor for a vote. The first test will unfold later this month when the Senate considers a 1,448-page, $820 billion House-passed spending bill that funds a variety of federal agencies and departments for fiscal 2004. Tucked in the mammoth measure is an NRA-backed amendment requiring the FBI to destroy gun-buyer background records 24 hours after the sale of a weapon. The FBI now maintains the electronic records for up to 90 days. Gun control advocates argue the 24-hour time frame would rob law enforcement of the ability to audit records to ensure guns were not sold to criminals, domestic abusers, even terrorists. "The NRA and its cohorts are trying to deregulate us into a society where guns overrule judgment and order," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a backer of strong gun control laws. But Chris Cox, the NRA's chief congressional lobbyist, said the issue is a matter of privacy rights. "The federal government should be prohibited from building a database for records from law-abiding gun owners," Cox said. "This data is not needed for criminal investigations." The same bill includes a provision that would prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from implementing a proposal requiring gun dealers to take regular inventories of their stock. The NRA and other gun rights groups argue that routine inventory requests would be burdensome. Gun control advocates say they are needed to identify missing or stolen firearms, noting the assault rifle used by the snipers who terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in 2002 was stolen from a Tacoma, Wash., gun store -- a theft the owner never detected. The immunity bill for manufacturers and dealers, approved 285-140 by the House last year, is expected to be considered in the Senate this winter or in the early spring. The legislation was prompted by a flood of lawsuits against gun makers, dealers and distributors by gun victims, their families and local governments hit by gun violence. They accuse manufacturers and dealers of aiding criminals through lax distribution and sales practices. The gun rights groups and the industry call the lawsuits frivolous and say they are aimed at driving companies into bankruptcy. More than 30 states already have immunity laws exempting gun manufacturers and distributors from state court lawsuits. Fifty-five senators are co-sponsors of the immunity bill, though supporters need 60 votes to cut off an expected filibuster by opponents to block the measure. Anti-gun forces plan to try to attach "poison pill" amendments unpalatable to the NRA. Those measures might include proposals to close the loophole that makes it easier to sell weapons at gun shows, or require child safety locks on all guns. Congress also will confront the Sept. 13 expiration of the ban on military-style assault weapons. The ban outlaws the manufacture, sale and distribution of 19 specific models of semi-automatic firearms, although the gun industry continues to manufacture dozens of assault weapons identical to those banned except for minor cosmetic changes. The Bushmaster XM15 used in the Washington-area sniper attacks, for example, may be sold even though it is a similar version of the AR15 assault rifle banned under the law. Some gun control advocates led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., say the best they can hope for in the current political climate is to pass a simple extension of the current law, though others, including Lautenberg, want to try to broaden the ban to make it more effective. "Right now," said Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "we are trying to hold on to the few safety precautions we have at the federal level." Jan. 13, 2004 (Robert Cohen can be contacted at [email protected]) |