Oh bloody hell

GeekWithA.45 and Publicola, among others, have been keeping an eye on the Senate debate over S. 1805. This is the new designation for S. 659, the bill that would prohibit frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers whose lawfully-sold and non-defective products are used in crimes. Unfortunately, there have been three anti-gun amendments added to the bill.

• Requiring all guns to be sold with a gun lock


• The McCain amendment to "close" the so-called "gun show loophole"


• Renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban that is scheduled to sunset this coming September

In addition, another amendment has been added that would give law enforcement officers the right to carry concealed weapons in other states, but not other citizens who have a concealed weapon permit. As GeekWithA.45 says:

The message I'm getting is pretty clear: Annointed agents of the State are noble and holy, and peasants "have no right to military weapons".

Other amendments are coming up for a vote later today.

The House has already passed a clean version of this bill but the Senate bill is now irreparably poisoned. It's possible that, should the Senate pass this bill, the amendments would be stripped back out in the committee to reconcile it with the House version or that, if they aren't, the President would veto it (he has stated he wants only a clean version). But I don't know if we can take that chance. I'm leaning toward the opinion that it would be better to kill this bill now and not risk passage of these amendments. Let the AWB ban sunset and then try this bill again next year.