Senator Lott's Betrayal of Gun Owners Nearly Complete
-- Majority Leader rolls Sen. Smith and moves gun control forward
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Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408 http://www.gunowners.org
"On the juvenile justice bill [S. 254], I could have gone through
all kinds of contortions and gyrations to try to block that, but I
thought . . . we ought to take it up. . . . I didn't run around out
here trying to block [the anti-gun amendments]. Some of my
colleagues said I should have done that." --Majority Leader Trent
Lott on his role in pushing the anti-gun crime bill, July 26, 1999
(Thursday, July 29, 1999) -- It's official. Majority Leader Trent
Lott has finally succeeded in breaking Senator Bob Smith's
stranglehold on the anti-gun crime bill and has sent the bill
forward to its next destination in the legislative process.
The Senate voted 77-22 yesterday to break Senator Bob Smith's
filibuster and then moved to send the legislation to a conference
committee that will iron out the differences between the House and
Senate crime bills.
The Senate rules would have allowed Smith (I-NH) to continue
filibustering the gun bill if he could garner 41 Senators to support
him. Smith fell 19 votes short of stopping the Gore-Lautenberg gun
control bill.
Ironically, Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle (SD) praised
Senator Lott for his leadership on this legislation. "I will say I
support the effort made by the majority leader to move this bill to
conference and the method he has employed to do so," Daschle said.
"We have had a very good debate on this bill. [Democrats] have had
an opportunity to offer amendments. I cite S. 254 as the model I
wish we would follow on all bills."
Indeed, Senator Lott has been instrumental in moving this gun
control legislation at every point along the way. Consider that the
Majority Leader:
* Scheduled a vote on a crime bill during the midst of the
hysteria following the Columbine shooting in May;
* Voted for several of the anti-gun provisions when they were
offered as amendments to the bill;
* Voted for final passage of the anti-gun S. 254 on May 20;
* Jump-started the whole gun control debate again this month by
taking the anti-gun Senate language (S. 254) and substituting it in
place of the relatively innocuous House crime bill (H.R. 1501);
* Dusted off his arsenal of parliamentary tricks to prevent
Senator Smith from offering constructive amendments to the crime
bill during yesterday's vote;
* Voted against the Smith filibuster yesterday; and finally,
* Allowed the Senate to send notoriously anti-gun Senators like
Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy to conduct negotiations in the
conference committee, while specifically excluding Senator Bob
Smith, who is also a member of the Judiciary Committee.
While Senator Smith promised yesterday to filibuster the bill once
it clears the conference committee, Senate rules will greatly
restrict his parliamentary options for delaying the bill. [The
Senate conferees are Hatch (R-UT), Kennedy (MA), Leahy (VT),
Sessions (AL), and Thurmond (R-SC).]
At this point, no one knows how long the crime legislation will
remain in the conference committee. It is possible that it will
remain there until after the August recess. Eventually, both
Congressional houses will have to vote on an identical bill before
they can send it to the President.
Gun owners will stand the best chance at defeating this legislation
in the House, seeing as how they succeeded in getting that body to
defeat similar legislation (H.R. 2122) in May. Please stay tuned
for further updates.
Senator Smith Responds To Senators After Yesterday's Vote
On Missing The Real Problem In Society. "What happened at Littleton
was a terrible tragedy. People used this on the Senate floor and
mounted an unprecedented assault on the second amendment rights of
law-abiding American gun owners. Not one law-abiding American
citizen had anything to do with Columbine, not one. . . . They cast
the blame, though, on the law-abiding gun owner . . . . The problem
is guns, they said, not the culture. It is interesting that we take
prayer and values out of the schools. What comes in? Violence,
drugs, condoms. Hello, America, wake up." --Congressional Record,
July 28, 1999
On Trampling The Constitution. "[The Second Amendment] is pretty
clear: 'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.' Tell me where there is anything in that
amendment that allows us to do this under the Constitution of the
United States of America? I stood right there where the pages are
sitting and took the oath twice when I came to the Senate to protect
and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that is what I
am doing now, and that is what I will continue to do.
"There is nothing in those words about background checks. There is
nothing in there about the people having a right to keep and bear
certain kinds of arms. There is nothing in there that says handguns
can be kept or not kept where shotguns can. Nothing. I sure do not
see anything in there that gives Congress any leeway whatsoever to
infringe second amendment rights whenever some group of anti-gun
zealots think what they like to call the 'public interest' requires
it. The public interest is to preserve and protect the Constitution
of the United States of America. That is what the public interest is
and nothing else. You trample on the Constitution; you trample on
the public interest." --Congressional Record, July 28, 1999
On His Intent To Continue Filibustering The Anti-gun Crime Bill. "I
am proud to stand up for the second amendment in the Chamber of the
Senate, and I will stand up here again and again, year after year,
month after month, whatever it takes to make this case because I
know I am right, and I am going to continue to do it. When this bill
[S. 254] comes out of conference, I am going to filibuster it again
for as long as I can. I am going to do everything I can to kill it,
whatever I can do. I am only one person." --Cong. Record, July 28,
1999
How Senators Voted On Your Gun Rights:
Listed below are the 77 Senators who voted AGAINST the Smith
filibuster and
in favor of sending the anti-gun crime bill to a House-Senate
conference committee.
Abraham (MI) Feinstein (CA) McCain (AZ)
Akaka (HI) Fitzgerald (IL) McConnell (KY)
Ashcroft (MO) Frist (TN) Mikulski (MD)
Baucus (MT) Gorton (WA) Moynihan (NY)
Bayh (IN) Graham (FL) Murkowski (AK)
Bennett (UT) Gregg (NH) Murray (WA)
Biden (DE) Hagel (NE) Reed (RI)
Bingaman (NM) Harkin (IA) Reid (NV)
Bond (MO) Hatch (UT) Robb (VA)
Boxer (CA) Hollings (SC) Roberts (KS)
Breaux (LA) Inouye (HI) Rockefeller (WV)
Bryan (NV) Jeffords (VT) Roth (DE)
Byrd (WV) Johnson (SD) Sarbanes (MD)
Chafee (RI) Kennedy (MA) Schumer (NY)
Cleland (GA) Kerrey (NE) Sessions (AL)
Cochran (MS) Kerry (MA) Smith (OR)
Collins (ME) Kohl (WI) Snowe (ME)
Conrad (ND) Landrieu (LA) Specter (PA)
Daschle (SD) Lautenberg (NJ) Stevens (AK)
DeWine (OH) Leahy (VT) Thompson (TN)
Dodd (CT) Levin (MI) Thurmond (SC)
Domenici (NM) Lieberman (CT) Torricelli (NJ)
Dorgan (ND) Lincoln (AR) Warner (VA)
Durbin (IL) Lott (MS) Wellstone (MN)
Edwards (NC) Lugar (IN) Wyden (OR)
Feingold (WI) Mack (FL)
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-- Majority Leader rolls Sen. Smith and moves gun control forward
Gun Owners of America E-Mail/FAX Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408 http://www.gunowners.org
"On the juvenile justice bill [S. 254], I could have gone through
all kinds of contortions and gyrations to try to block that, but I
thought . . . we ought to take it up. . . . I didn't run around out
here trying to block [the anti-gun amendments]. Some of my
colleagues said I should have done that." --Majority Leader Trent
Lott on his role in pushing the anti-gun crime bill, July 26, 1999
(Thursday, July 29, 1999) -- It's official. Majority Leader Trent
Lott has finally succeeded in breaking Senator Bob Smith's
stranglehold on the anti-gun crime bill and has sent the bill
forward to its next destination in the legislative process.
The Senate voted 77-22 yesterday to break Senator Bob Smith's
filibuster and then moved to send the legislation to a conference
committee that will iron out the differences between the House and
Senate crime bills.
The Senate rules would have allowed Smith (I-NH) to continue
filibustering the gun bill if he could garner 41 Senators to support
him. Smith fell 19 votes short of stopping the Gore-Lautenberg gun
control bill.
Ironically, Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle (SD) praised
Senator Lott for his leadership on this legislation. "I will say I
support the effort made by the majority leader to move this bill to
conference and the method he has employed to do so," Daschle said.
"We have had a very good debate on this bill. [Democrats] have had
an opportunity to offer amendments. I cite S. 254 as the model I
wish we would follow on all bills."
Indeed, Senator Lott has been instrumental in moving this gun
control legislation at every point along the way. Consider that the
Majority Leader:
* Scheduled a vote on a crime bill during the midst of the
hysteria following the Columbine shooting in May;
* Voted for several of the anti-gun provisions when they were
offered as amendments to the bill;
* Voted for final passage of the anti-gun S. 254 on May 20;
* Jump-started the whole gun control debate again this month by
taking the anti-gun Senate language (S. 254) and substituting it in
place of the relatively innocuous House crime bill (H.R. 1501);
* Dusted off his arsenal of parliamentary tricks to prevent
Senator Smith from offering constructive amendments to the crime
bill during yesterday's vote;
* Voted against the Smith filibuster yesterday; and finally,
* Allowed the Senate to send notoriously anti-gun Senators like
Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy to conduct negotiations in the
conference committee, while specifically excluding Senator Bob
Smith, who is also a member of the Judiciary Committee.
While Senator Smith promised yesterday to filibuster the bill once
it clears the conference committee, Senate rules will greatly
restrict his parliamentary options for delaying the bill. [The
Senate conferees are Hatch (R-UT), Kennedy (MA), Leahy (VT),
Sessions (AL), and Thurmond (R-SC).]
At this point, no one knows how long the crime legislation will
remain in the conference committee. It is possible that it will
remain there until after the August recess. Eventually, both
Congressional houses will have to vote on an identical bill before
they can send it to the President.
Gun owners will stand the best chance at defeating this legislation
in the House, seeing as how they succeeded in getting that body to
defeat similar legislation (H.R. 2122) in May. Please stay tuned
for further updates.
Senator Smith Responds To Senators After Yesterday's Vote
On Missing The Real Problem In Society. "What happened at Littleton
was a terrible tragedy. People used this on the Senate floor and
mounted an unprecedented assault on the second amendment rights of
law-abiding American gun owners. Not one law-abiding American
citizen had anything to do with Columbine, not one. . . . They cast
the blame, though, on the law-abiding gun owner . . . . The problem
is guns, they said, not the culture. It is interesting that we take
prayer and values out of the schools. What comes in? Violence,
drugs, condoms. Hello, America, wake up." --Congressional Record,
July 28, 1999
On Trampling The Constitution. "[The Second Amendment] is pretty
clear: 'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security
of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed.' Tell me where there is anything in that
amendment that allows us to do this under the Constitution of the
United States of America? I stood right there where the pages are
sitting and took the oath twice when I came to the Senate to protect
and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that is what I
am doing now, and that is what I will continue to do.
"There is nothing in those words about background checks. There is
nothing in there about the people having a right to keep and bear
certain kinds of arms. There is nothing in there that says handguns
can be kept or not kept where shotguns can. Nothing. I sure do not
see anything in there that gives Congress any leeway whatsoever to
infringe second amendment rights whenever some group of anti-gun
zealots think what they like to call the 'public interest' requires
it. The public interest is to preserve and protect the Constitution
of the United States of America. That is what the public interest is
and nothing else. You trample on the Constitution; you trample on
the public interest." --Congressional Record, July 28, 1999
On His Intent To Continue Filibustering The Anti-gun Crime Bill. "I
am proud to stand up for the second amendment in the Chamber of the
Senate, and I will stand up here again and again, year after year,
month after month, whatever it takes to make this case because I
know I am right, and I am going to continue to do it. When this bill
[S. 254] comes out of conference, I am going to filibuster it again
for as long as I can. I am going to do everything I can to kill it,
whatever I can do. I am only one person." --Cong. Record, July 28,
1999
How Senators Voted On Your Gun Rights:
Listed below are the 77 Senators who voted AGAINST the Smith
filibuster and
in favor of sending the anti-gun crime bill to a House-Senate
conference committee.
Abraham (MI) Feinstein (CA) McCain (AZ)
Akaka (HI) Fitzgerald (IL) McConnell (KY)
Ashcroft (MO) Frist (TN) Mikulski (MD)
Baucus (MT) Gorton (WA) Moynihan (NY)
Bayh (IN) Graham (FL) Murkowski (AK)
Bennett (UT) Gregg (NH) Murray (WA)
Biden (DE) Hagel (NE) Reed (RI)
Bingaman (NM) Harkin (IA) Reid (NV)
Bond (MO) Hatch (UT) Robb (VA)
Boxer (CA) Hollings (SC) Roberts (KS)
Breaux (LA) Inouye (HI) Rockefeller (WV)
Bryan (NV) Jeffords (VT) Roth (DE)
Byrd (WV) Johnson (SD) Sarbanes (MD)
Chafee (RI) Kennedy (MA) Schumer (NY)
Cleland (GA) Kerrey (NE) Sessions (AL)
Cochran (MS) Kerry (MA) Smith (OR)
Collins (ME) Kohl (WI) Snowe (ME)
Conrad (ND) Landrieu (LA) Specter (PA)
Daschle (SD) Lautenberg (NJ) Stevens (AK)
DeWine (OH) Leahy (VT) Thompson (TN)
Dodd (CT) Levin (MI) Thurmond (SC)
Domenici (NM) Lieberman (CT) Torricelli (NJ)
Dorgan (ND) Lincoln (AR) Warner (VA)
Durbin (IL) Lott (MS) Wellstone (MN)
Edwards (NC) Lugar (IN) Wyden (OR)
Feingold (WI) Mack (FL)
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you use http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/goa.htm to enter their online
store.
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