The Gun Lobby's Dead Aim

CBS's Dick Meyer: Democrats Forfeit The Gun Control Duel

(CBS)  Conveniently for the NRA and company (and pardon me if this sounds morbid and cynical), the country is further away from Columbine and the D.C. snipers, huge national stories, and traumas in which the victims were not only innocent, they were mostly white and middle class. They were voters and the children of voters. Those kinds of tragedies are setbacks for the gun lobby. For a little while, that is.

Last year's debate over gun liability was noisy. Police chiefs and mayors (of both parties) campaigned against the bill. The gun industry had to make the argument that it shouldn't be held liable for what people do with guns and point out that companies could still be sued for things like product failure and that dealers could still face criminal charges for gun law violations. We in the media paid some attention.

This year, the skids are greased. Because that's the way the Democrats, led by new Minority Leader Harry Reid, want it. The Republicans and the NRA aren't doing anything differently. The Democrats, for reasons of politics not policy, just don't want to be associated with gun control, so with a few principled exceptions, they have punted.

Actually, I take that back - the Republicans have done one thing differently. Party elders have used an especially ludicrous and phony argument for the bill: national security.

The administration issued its official proclamation of support for the bill on July 26. It said, "The bill would also safeguard our national security by preventing frivolous lawsuits against an industry that plays an important role in fulfilling our military's procurement needs." (By the way, please explain: if the lawsuits are really "frivolous," how can they be a threat to a whole industry?) Majority Leader Bill Frist has repeatedly floated the same canard. It's absurd, egregious propaganda.

The pro-gun control lobbying group Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence cites a public filing the gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. made with the SEC on March 11, 2005 "[I]t is not probable and is unlikely that litigation, including punitive damage claims, will have a material adverse effect on the financial position of the Company." Smith & Wesson reported to the SEC in June that they expected product sales to be up 5 percent in 2005.

Gun makers aren't endangered. But the backbone of the Democrats and their future may be.

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Dick Meyer, a veteran political and investigative producer for CBS News, is the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, based in Washington.

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