Good and Bad Gun News

First, the bad.

Associated Press via ABCNews: Rifle Makers Settle in D.C. Sniper Case

The manufacturer and dealer of the rifle used in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings agreed Wednesday to pay $2.5 million in a settlement with victims and victims' families.

The settlement with Bushmaster marks the first time a gun manufacturer has agreed to pay damages to settle claims of negligent distribution of weapons, said Jon Lowy, a lawyer with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. He helped argue the case. He said the settlement with Bull's Eye Shooter Supply is the largest against a gun dealer.

"These settlements send a loud and clear message that the gun industry cannot turn a blind eye to how criminals get their guns," Lowy said.

Bushmaster Firearms of Windham, Maine, agreed to pay $550,000 to eight plaintiffs. Bull's Eye Shooter Supply of Tacoma, where the snipers' Bushmaster rifle came from, agreed to pay $2 million.

Kelly Corr, the attorney representing Bushmaster, said the company made "no admission of liability whatsoever."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Of course not, because neither the gun manufacturer nor the gun dealer are responsible for who does what with the items they sell! Only individuals act and they are responsible for their actions. I'd have thrown the entire case out. The article states that the dealer demonstrated negligent behavior in not keeping track of stolen or lost inventory. So what? That still doesn't make them responsible. It makes them dumb, dangerous, and poor businessmen.

The good news is actually mixed, but it's still better than hearing something other than GOP: Congress Won't Vote on Weapons Ban. From the Associated Press via Yahoo! News (link will rot):

Congress will not vote on an assault weapons ban due to expire Monday, Republican leaders said Wednesday, rejecting a last-ditch effort by supporters to renew it.

That's the good part of the mixed news. The bad part, however, is

"I think the will of the American people is consistent with letting it expire, so it will expire," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told reporters.

[...]

Some Democrats and several police leaders said President Bush should try to persuade Congress to renew the ban. Bush has said he would sign such a bill if Congress passed it.

"If the president asked me, it'd still be no ... because we don't have the votes to pass an assault weapons ban and it will expire Monday and that's that," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told reporters later.

DeLay said the ban was "a feel-good piece of legislation" that does nothing to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.

However, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he would consider allowing the House to vote on legislation only if the Senate acted first.

Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

You get that?

• Senator Frist thinks your right to property and self-defense should be determined by "the will of the American people."
• President Bush approves of a law banning guns almost entirely on the basis of what they look like.
• Representative DeLay thinks the government just might have reason to abrogate private property rights in the name of keeping crime low.
• Representative Hastert's comments remain in the procedural-political realm.

And conservatives want these people in power to protect the 2nd Amendment? The limited government movement is truly dead in the mainstream GOP, even on an issue as central to the identity of the party as gun rights.

Posted by Drizzten at September 09, 2004 08:21 AM