Fox & Gun

This, via Right Democrat's Twitter feed:

For Nevada Gun Owners, let's set the record straight on the AWB: In 1993 Senator Reid was a relative novice in the US Senate. Bill Clinton was a new Democratic President in the White House and Democrats were enjoying much success in their legislative agenda. As any new Senator might, Reid had hopes to move up through the Democratic ranks and establish his ability to represent Nevada through legislative leadership in the majority Democratic Senate. (Reid is now the Senate Minority Leader and the most powerful Nevada representative to ever serve in the U.S. Congress.) But in 1993 when an amendment to the Crime Bill was offered and cosponsored by leading Senate Democrats, Harry Reid voted NO. That amendment was the Assault Weapons Ban that was added to the Crime Bill by a vote of 56 to 43 (and 1 not voting).

Eight Democratic Senators voted NO against the AWB Amendment in 1993, and that NO vote included BOTH of Nevada's Democratic Senators - Reid and Bryan. Ten Republican Senators voted YES on the Feinstein Assault Weapons Ban Amendment in 1993 and attached it to the hugely popular Crime Bill that was passed into law in 1994 by a Senate vote of 95/4/1 that included 40 Republican Senators voting YES. This AWB ban terminated on September 13, 2004.

So before the lessons of the 1994 elections, before the AWB issue was proven a looser for Democrats across the nation, before the outrage that has now become a keystone of partisan politics for sportsmen, in 1993 Harry Reid voted NO to banning guns and YES for sportsmen's rights. Go here to see the Congressional record on that Amendment vote: Feinstein Amdt. No. 1152.

On March 22, 2004 a similar vote attached a renewal of the AWB to the most important legislation for the gun industry this decade: the gun liability bill S.180. Senator Reid had given his support to this bill and had led Democrats to get enough votes to make the bill filibuster-proof in the Senate. This legislation would have prevented third party nuisance lawsuits when firearms were used illegally. U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors have to defend their lawful business actions against claims that they should be responsible for the illegal behavior of criminals who use firearms. That's like suing General Motors if a criminal robs a bank and drives off in a Chevy. It's not only a nuisance, it's nonsense, and it costs the industry millions that must eventually be passed on to sportsmen.

S.Amdt. 2637 would have renewed the AWB. Harry Reid and four other Democrats voted NO on the AWB renewal, but the amendment passed when eight Republican Senators, guided by President Bush's promise to sign the firearms ban if it was placed on his desk, voted yes to ten more years of gun banning. You can check the Congressional Record on the votes. Because the amendment to extend the AWB was successful, the tort reform that would have protected the lawful commerce of American gun manufactures and distributors lost. Reid once again voted for sportsmen's rights by voting NO on the amended bill.

Our rights as sportsmen and women are too important to give them over to any one political party. We can't win half the time and secure those rights.

Rather like the flurry over the Tories and the hunting lobby. The Tories think that are onto a winner with foxhunting, and the hunting lobby seems to think that it is onto a winner with the Tories. But there were Commons majorities to ban it in the Major years. And its heartlands are Yorkshire, Wales, the Midlands, Devon and Cornwall, which return few or (in the Cornish case) no Tory MPs, and have now done so for three successive General Elections.