Senate Republicans scuttle gun bill after losing amendment vote

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans scuttled an election-year bill to immunize the gun industry from lawsuits Tuesday after Democrats amended it to extend an assault weapons ban and require background checks on all buyers at private gun shows.

The National Rifle Association began pressuring senators to vote against the bill after Democrats won votes on the two key gun control measures. The 90-8 vote against the bill virtually ends any chance for gun legislation to make it through Congress this year.

"I now believe it is so dramatically wounded that I would urge my colleagues to vote against it," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the sponsor of the gunmaker immunity bill.

Democrats won close votes on their amendments to change the Republican legislation, a strategy aimed at pressuring the GOP-dominated House to accept the restrictions to gain passage of the gunmaker-immunity bill.

While Democrats won't get the gun ban extension and the gun show legislation, they called the vote a success. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "The immunity bill was a terrible bill. We're better off at the end of the day than we were at the beginning of the day."

Underlining the importance of the day to Democrats, presidential contenders John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina broke away from the campaign trail to cast their first Senate votes of the year, joining the 52-47 majority on the assault weapons ban and the 53-46 majority on the gun show bill.

A dozen Republican senators voted for one or both of the provisions, allowing minority Democrats to gain victories on the amendments.

The House last year passed a bill to shield gunmakers and dealers from liability suits by crime victims.

But Republican leaders in the House refused to allow a vote on continuing for another decade the assault weapons ban, which is to expire in September.

Democrats had hoped their victories in the Senate on gun shows and assault weapons would force Republicans to let the House also vote on them. But the White House said the two amendments would only kill the effort to immunize the gun industry from lawsuits.

"Some are simply more interested in undermining that piece of legislation than they are in necessarily getting the other legislation passed," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday.

On the final roll call, only three Republicans voted for the bill: Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio, John McCain of Arizona and Richard Lugar of Indiana. Democrats who voted for the final package were Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, John Breaux of Louisiana, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.

"While we will continue to work to save the U.S. firearms industry, we have said from the start that we would not allow this bill to become a vehicle for added restrictions on the law-abiding people of America," NRA Vice President Wayne R. LaPierre Jr. said after the vote.

The gunmaker-immunity package was an election-year priority for the White House, congressional Republicans and other conservative groups as well as the NRA. All contend the gun industry is being sued out of existence for making a legal product, though gun manufacturers have yet to lose a lawsuit.

"It is really time that we say that enough is enough," said Craig. "It is the individual who is responsible for the crime, not someone else."

President Bush had urged the Senate to reject the Democratic amendments even though he had voiced support in the past for extending the assault weapons ban and closing what critics called the "gun show loophole" on background checks.

Under the changes, the ban on at least 19 types of military-style assault weapons would have been extended another 10 years and all buyers at private gun shows would have had to go through government background checks. Under current law, unlicensed gun dealers at private shows are not required to ask for government checks before selling weapons.

Supporters argued that in that way people who normally wouldn't be able to buy guns can get dangerous weapons. "Criminals and terrorists are exploiting this obvious loophole in our gun safety laws," said McCain.

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The Senate bill is S. 1805. The House bill is HR 1036.