After rejecting a committee debate and moving directly to floor action on gun safety proposals, the United States House of Representatives has voted down all gun legislation.

The United States Conference of Mayors spoke strongly at its recent Annual Conference in New Orleans urging the House to pass meaningful gun safety provisions and to reject any weakening of current law (see story on page ). Unfortunately, the House failed to head to the advice of the nation’s locally-elected leaders.

The full House voted 280-147 against the gun bill (HR 2122) on June 18.

The final vote came following the adoption of a gun show amendment by Rep. John Dingell (MI) which would have seriously weakened the gun show proposal included in the Senate’s juvenile justice bill (S 254). The House passed the Dingell Amendment by a vote of 218-211 and defeated the a much stronger amendment by Representatives Roukema (NJ), McCarthy (NY) and Blagojevich (IL) by a vote of 193-235.

With the adoption of the Dingell Amendment to the underlying bill by Representatives Hyde (IL) and McCollum (FL), HR 2122 would have:

• defined gun shows so narrowly that many events at which hundreds of guns are sold, such as flea markets, would not have been covered. It also would have still allowed some unlicensed sellers to sell guns without conducting a background check.;
• weakened law enforcement's ability to conduct a background check on a gun purchaser at a gun show by shortening the amount of time in which to complete the check. Currently, law enforcement has 3 business days to complete a check if the initial check indicates a potential prohibition on the sale. Following adoption of the Dingell Amendment, this was shortened to just 24 hours for all vendors, including licensed vendors, at gun shows. The FBI estimates that -- under such a 24 hour rule - over 17,000 people who were stopped from getting guns by the Brady instant background check system would have gotten their weapons in just the last 6 months;
• eliminated the crime gun tracing requirements contained in the Senate bill; and
• undermined state firearms laws by allowing federally licensed firearms dealers to sell at gun shows in all 50 states and to ship guns to un-licensed buyers across state lines.

Because of the adoption of the Dingell Amendment, HR 2122 was considered ultimately worse than nothing at all by many gun safety advocates.