By Ed Somers
March 15, 2004

On March 2, the U.S. Senate approved two major gun safety initiatives strongly supported by the Conference of Mayors, and then defeated the underlying liability protection bill for gun manufacturers and dealers opposed by the Conference. This was a strong victory for the coalition of elected official, law enforcement and gun safety organizations which had spent the last year lobbying on these issues.

With bipartisan support, the Senate voted 52-47 for a bipartisan proposal (S. 2109) by Senators Dianne Feinstein (CA), John Warner (VA), Charles Schumer (NY), Mike DeWine (OH) and others to extend for 10 years the assault weapon ban set to expire on September 13 of 2004. The Senate then voted 53-46 for a bipartisan proposal (S. 1807) by Senators John McCain (AZ), Jack Reed (RI) and others to close the gun show loophole and require background checks at shows where more than 75 guns are sold.

The previous week, the Senate also voted 70-27 for an amendment by Senator Barbara Boxer (CA) to require that firearm manufacturers and dealers provide child safety locks when a handgun is sold or transferred.

The legislative vehicle for these amendments had been a bill (S. 1805) to provide liability protection to manufacturers and sellers of guns against lawsuits brought by a number of cities and other parties. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved its own immunity bill (H.R. 1036) without any gun safety amendments. The Administration supports the immunity legislation and had urged that gun safety amendments not be included in that they could prevent final passage of the immunity bill. The Conference of Mayors has adopted strong policy against this preemption and opposes the liability bill.

In a major turn of events, following the adoption of the gun safety provisions, the sponsor of the immunity bill Senator Larry Craig (ID) urged all Senators to vote against the immunity bill. After this announcement, the immunity bill was defeated on a vote of 8 to 90.

In commenting on this victory, Gary Mayor Scott L. King, Chair of the Conference's Mayors and Police Chiefs Task Force, said, "Our victory shows that by putting together a grassroots coalition of mayors, police chiefs, and activists, we can have an impact in Washington on major public safety issues. I hope we can use this momentum to successfully pursue other law enforcement priorities such as COPS and LLEBG funding which are threatened with near elimination this year."

Sponsors of the gun safety proposals, especially the assault weapon ban which will expire in September, may seek a new vehicle for action this year.