Second Amendment Issues

Second Amendment Issues

I am an ardent supporter of Second Amendment rights. I wonder if the anti-gun rights folks out there will stop with so-called "assault weapons" (delinateated from other weapons primarily on cosmetic grounds)?

As for the "gun show loophole," does this mean, now, that I must run a background check on my brother prior to giving him a gun as a present? Do I have to run it only if I give it to him at a gun show or will it also be required if I give it to him at home?

The gun manufacturer immunity bill makes good sense to me. If you are for suing gun manufacturers who sell a legal product in a legal way and abide by all laws and regulations in selling that product, then do you also support suing car manufacturers (42,443)and alcohol distillers and brewers (19,857) for manufacturing their products which, used alone or especially when used in conjunction, cause more harm, injury, health problems, disease, impairment, disability, and death than the guns in the U.S. (29,573 total, 11,356 of which were suicides, leaving 18,217 as the number for other gun deaths including accidents)?

(You can find the relevant statistics here for the most recent year available - 2001. See pps. 10-11 for summary stats.)

Senate Democrats Score Wins on Gun Bill

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to extend for another decade a ban on military-style assault weapons and to require background checks on buyers at private gun shows, giving Democrats rare victories on gun legislation that would also deny crime victims the ability to sue gunmakers and dealers. . . .

Democrats argued that law enforcement officers and regular citizens all would be safer if the assault weapons covered under the bill continued to be banned. "These are weapons of war. They are designed to kill a lot of people quickly," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who authored the 1994 gun ban while in the House.

Warner, who voted against the gun ban in 1994, said the testimony from law enforcement officials in his state convinced him to vote Tuesday for renewing it.

"Law enforcement has shown that it has reduced the use of these weapons in crime, so my words pale in significance to the law officers of the four corners of the commonwealth of Virginia," Warner said.

President Bush has staked out both sides of the issue, calling for the reauthorization of the assault weapons ban while arguing against the Senate's adding it to the gunmaker immunity bill.

After other amendments, the Senate is expected to easily pass the gunmaker immunity bill. It would bar lawsuits against gun makers stemming from a crime in when a legally sold gun is used to commit the crime.

After Senate action, the measure goes to a House-Senate negotiating committee that will hammer out differences with the version passed by the GOP-controlled House last year.