A Neal Knox excerpt on Hostettler amendment vote switcher

O

Oatka

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Drop 'em a line to let 'em know how much you appreciate their efforts. <sarcasm off>

Last week Mr. Hostettler's amendment to prohibit the Housing and Urban Development department from lobbying state and local
officials to give priorities to Smith & Wesson products passed 218-207.

Then a more important amendment to keep HUD from trying to enforce the S&W agreement failed 206-219.

Those who shifted their votes from aye to nay all have a spotty gun rights record. Only two were Democrats, Mike Thompson
(CA) and Peter DeFazio (OR).

Republicans who voted for the first but against the second Hostettler amendment (listed by state) were George Radanovich (CA), Elton Gallegly (CA), Ronald Packard (CA), Thomas Tancredo (CO), Bill McCollum
(FL), C. W. Bill Young (FL), Dan Miller (FL), Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL), Johnny Isakson (GA), Greg Ganske
(IA), Douglas Bereuter (NE), Sue W. Kelly (NY), and Steven LaTourette (OH).

Four members, all Republicans, voted for the prohibition against HUD enforcement against S&W after voting against Hostettler's prohibition against lobbying local officials to give S&W guns preference.

Those were Heather Wilson (NM), John Sweeney (NY), John McHugh (NY) and David Hobson (OH).


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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
 
House Rejects Curbs on Gun Agreement

By Joanne Kenen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday night narrowly defeated a measure to bar the Justice Department from applying or enforcing a gun-safety agreement with
handgun maker Smith & Wesson.

The 201-196 vote against an amendment offered by Rep. John Hostettler was the second defeat in a week for the Indiana Republican, an opponent of the deal struck between the government and the gun
maker in March. About 50 Republicans voted against the amendment and 40 Democrats voted for it.

``This is back-door gun control through coercion and the threat of litigation,'' Hostettler said of the agreement between the government and the gun manufacturer.

New York Democrat Jose Serrano retorted: ``This is Smith & Wesson trying to do the right thing. To be attacked and say they have been coerced is totally unfair.''

In exchange for assurances that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would not pursue a lawsuit, Smith & Wesson broke with other major firearms makers and agreed to a number
of gun safety provisions including developing ``smart gun'' technology that would prevent unauthorized users from firing a specific weapon.

Smith & Wesson also would require dealers who sell its products to abide by a number of safety standards for all brands of weapons, including background checks and waiting periods for anyone buying
multiple weapons at a time.

Hostettler's amendment, on the annual spending bill that includes the Justice Department's budget, would have prevented the department from intervening to make sure the agreement was carried out with the
Springfield, Massachusetts-based Smith & Wesson, a unit of Britain's Tomkins Plc (TOMK.L).

Last week he failed to win passage of a similar amendment blocking HUD from implementing the pact, although he did succeed in blocking HUD from spending money to help a coalition of towns that
agreed to buy handguns for their police only from gun makers that include child safety locks with their sales.

The Indiana lawmaker accused the Clinton administration of trying to circumvent Congress, which has not passed new gun control legislation despite President Clinton's entreaties, and of creating a ``reign
of legislation and litigation terror.''

Hostettler argued that the new safety measures would not stop criminal violence or tragedies like the Michigan murder of a 6-year-old by a first-grade classmate.

His opponents said that safe gun technology or child locks might indeed have prevented that little boy from firing the fatal bullet.

``This is not gun control. This is called gun safety, where a manufacturer is coming before us and doing the right thing to try to make our citizens and our children safer,'' said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a
New York Democrat who entered politics after her husband was shot to death in a commuter railroad car.

In another gun-related amendment on this same spending bill, the House last week blocked a proposal by New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey to pay to hire additional prosecutors for gun crimes.

The National Rifle Association, which opposes new gun legislation, has called for better enforcement of existing laws, but Democrats who have tried to increase budgets for gun crime prosecution have
been rebuffed.
 
Biased POS's. Well, guess what? Sucks we lost that vote but it won't save S$W's sorry ass. Our boycott will take care of them the old fashioned way.
 
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