|  Bush
will back ongoing ban on assault weapons
Surprise stand runs counter to NRA priority
Saturday, 12 April 2003,
By Shannon McCaffrey,
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is bucking the National Rifle
Association and supporting a renewal of the assault-weapons
ban, set to expire just before the presidential election.
"The president supports the current law, and he supports
reauthorization of the current law," White House spokesman
Scott McClellan said.
Tossing out the ban on semiautomatic weapons is a top priority
for the NRA. President Bush said during his presidential campaign
that he supported the current ban, but it was less clear whether
he would support an extension.
The White House comment comes just before the NRA's annual convention
and as the gun debate overall shows signs of fresh life after
several years of near hibernation. Republicans now control the
House and the Senate and are using their newfound power to breathe
life into the stalled pro-gun rights agenda. This week, they
pushed through a bill in the House to give gun makers and dealers
sweeping immunity from lawsuits.
The assault-weapons ban is considered a crown jewel by the gun-control
movement, and even though its expiration is more than a year
away it is already being watched closely.
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who like Bush is a staunch gun-rights
supporter, muddied the waters in a recent appearance before
the Senate Judiciary Committee when he refused to say whether
the administration supports an extension. Ashcroft cited a 1999
Justice Department report that said the ban's impact on deadly
gun violence is unclear.
The White House comment surprised those on both sides of the gun
issue.
"That's lousy politics," said Grover Norquist, an NRA
board member who leads the conservative pro-Bush group Americans
for Tax Reform.
Joe Sudbay of the Violence Policy Center said it "creates
a huge problem for Bush with the NRA."
"The NRA said they would be working out of the Oval Office
when Bush was elected. This creates an interesting situation
for them," he said.
Matt Bennett of Americans for Gun Safety applauded Bush's stance
but urged the president to use his political clout to push for
Congress to act. If Congress does nothing, the ban could just
expire.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, said Bush's
support was somewhat irrelevant.
"Ultimately, I think this issue is going to be decided by
the Congress," LaPierre said.
If it is, the NRA has reason to be optimistic.
This week's action on the immunity legislation for dealers and
gun makers reflects the interest of Republicans to resurrect
the pro-gun rights agenda.
Congress was poised to act on the bill last fall, but the deadly
sniper attacks in the Washington area prompted a delay. The
measure has enough co-sponsors in the Senate to pass that chamber
unless Democrats dig in their heels and filibuster.
Supporters of the immunity bill say it shields gun makers from
bankruptcy because of frivolous lawsuits that became popular
during the Clinton administration. Lawsuits filed by cities
against gun manufacturers - modeled on similar litigation against
the tobacco industry - have so far been unsuccessful but have
kept gun makers tied up in court.
Gun-control advocates say the immunity bill will keep innocent
victims of gun violence from getting their day in court.
The gun industry would become the first to receive blanket immunity
protections if the bill succeeds.
The active gun debate stands in contrast to several years of inaction.
Democrats largely abandoned the gun issue in the 2002 midterm
election after some determined that it had been an albatross
for Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore in 2000.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., elected to Congress on a gun-control
platform after her husband was killed and her son wounded by
a deranged gunman on a Long Island commuter train in 1993, acknowledged
that some Democrats are nervous about the gun issue.
She said soccer moms in the suburbs, so crucial to election success,
draw the line at assault-style weapons such as AK-47s and Uzis,
which can quickly fire multiple shots.
The 1994 bill made it illegal to manufacture, sell or possess
certain semiautomatic weapons that discharge one shot for each
pull of the trigger and automatically load a round of ammunition
without being cocked. The prohibition is due to expire in September
2004.
But the NRA's LaPierre noted that the political climate on guns
has changed dramatically in the last few years. The GOP has
a lock on the White House and Congress, and he said that even
some Democrats are campaigning on a pro-gun platform.
One who has not is Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who will introduce
a bill to reauthorize the assault weapons ban in the coming
weeks.
A new report due out later this year as a follow up to the 1999
report cited by Ashcroft could provide her with some fresh evidence.
One of its authors, Jeffrey Roth, said preliminary findings
showed that high-capacity magazines for ammunition, banned as
part of the 1994 bill, were being linked increasingly to violent
crimes.
|
THIS
PICTURE IS A FAKE!! I got fooled also and used it in my
Feb. newsletter
We
even had enough people to get a bus.
Why don't
we pass a law that bans blacks and other minorities from owning guns if gun
violence by criminals from that minority group is a problem? That should end
the
problem.
I
don't
see
many white
or
Jews who
are members
or
the Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings or other gangs.)