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Gun bill may end standoff

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited July 2002 in General Discussion
Gun bill may end standoff

Senate Democrats appear ready to pass a measure banning some lawsuits against gun manufacturers.



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By LYNN BONNER, Staff Writer

Democrats in the state Senate appear to be backing down from their position on gun-show regulations, and they are poised to approve a measure banning some lawsuits against gun manufacturers without the proposed curb on gun dealers they insisted on last year.

The Senate's approval would end its standoff with the House over the gun bill.

Last year, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a measure that would ban local governments from suing gun makers, paired with a provision that sought to make it more difficult to buy a gun at a show without undergoing a background check. The House passed the lawsuit ban twice, but wouldn't go along with the gun-show restriction.

To pass the gun-maker immunity -- something the National Rifle Association has been pushing for -- a Senate committee had to dust off a bill that had been languishing since April 2001.

Republicans attribute the reversal to Senate Democrats wanting to win gun-owners' support in a tough election year, particularly since some of the Senate's leading Democrats will be running this fall in new Republican-leaning districts. Democrats said they are advancing an issue they have supported all along.

The lawsuit ban cleared the Senate Judiciary II Committee last week. No vote by the full Senate has been scheduled. Senate leader Marc Basnight said he wanted the lawsuit ban and the House wouldn't vote for the gun-show restrictions.

The gun-show restriction would have required promoters to obtain a $500 permit from the local sheriff. The idea was that promoters would pass the cost on to dealers, and fewer unlicensed dealers -- who don't conduct background checks -- would participate.

"The House says that's the way they want it," said Basnight, a Democrat from Manteo. "I think you need to get the bill out. I didn't mind the licensing provision. That is not something the House wants."

The NRA and gun makers began pushing for immunity from government lawsuits a few years ago as cities around the country sued manufacturers for the costs of gun violence. City council members in Durham talked about suing gun manufacturers, but dropped the issue.

When the House version of the bill popped up on a Senate committee agenda last week, Republicans were ready to take up the pro-gun position, but found no need to argue, said Senate Minority Leader Patrick Ballantine, a Wilmington Republican.

"I don't know the internal politics of the Democrat caucus, but it seems that the Democrats are going to be concerned about their voting records for the first time in decades because incumbents are going to have fair and competitive districts," Ballantine said. "North Carolina has a lot of hunters and gun owners, and that could make a difference in a close election."

Gun-control advocates in North Carolina contend gun manufacturers don't need immunity from lawsuits because no North Carolina city is seeking to hold them liable. "The litigation pre-emption is unnecessary," said Bruce Thompson, a lobbyist for North Carolinians Against Gun Violence and Americans for Gun Safety. "It's a symbolic bill."

Encouraged by the NRA and gun manufacturers, 28 states have passed laws banning government lawsuits against gun makers. "It's an issue that's very important to our members," said Patricia Gregory, an NRA spokeswoman, said in an interview Monday.

A renewed interest in preventing lawsuits was sparked by an Ohio Supreme Court decision about three weeks ago that allows Cincinnati to pursue its lawsuit against gun manufacturers.

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, a Carrboro Democrat who opposes the lawsuit ban, attributed its revival to the NRA. "There's a very strong lobby here," she said.

The NRA political action committee, the Political Victory Fund, gave $48,635 to state candidates in the last election cycle, according to the National Institute for Money in State Politics, a group that tracks campaign contributions. Eighty-one of 170 legislators received donations from the NRA's PAC.

Staff writer Lynn Bonner can be reached at 829-4821 or at lbonner@newsobserver.com.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1521624p-1551393c.html

"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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