Senate votes to bar emergency gun confiscation

Senate votes to bar emergency gun confiscation
Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:10pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to prohibit the confiscation of legally owned guns during an emergency like last year's Hurricane Katrina, marking another victory for the gun lobby.

By a vote of 84-16, the Senate embraced an amendment by Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. He attached his measure to a domestic security spending bill for the fiscal year starting October 1 that the Senate is expected to pass soon.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed its version of the spending bill and negotiators will have to decide whether to keep the gun provision. The House is usually sympathetic to gun owners.

Citing the constitutional right to bear arms, Vitter said that during an emergency people should be allowed to hold onto "legally possessed firearms to defend your life, your property" at a time when telephone lines and cell phones probably are not operating and victims "can't reach out to law enforcement authorities."

Vitter said 10 states have passed similar laws. Louisiana is one of them. <snip>

Read the rest of the article here: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsA...RTRUKOC_0_US-CONGRESS-GUNS.xml&archived=False
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Here's a list of how the Senators voted on this amendment: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/109/senate/2/votes/202/
 
The list of bad seeds:

Daniel Akaka, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Tom Harkin, Daniel Inouye, Edward Kennedy, Frank Lautenberg, Carl Levin, Robert Menéndez, Barbara Mikulski, Jack Reed, Paul Sarbanes, Chuck Schumer
 
The list of bad seeds:

Daniel Akaka, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, Dick Durbin, Dianne Feinstein, Tom Harkin, Daniel Inouye, Edward Kennedy, Frank Lautenberg, Carl Levin, Robert Menéndez, Barbara Mikulski, Jack Reed, Paul Sarbanes, Chuck Schumer.
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Also known as, "The Usual Suspects." I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.
 
Re the list of "bad seeds", anyone surprised?

As for passage of the amendment, I'm amazed at a majority of The Senate displaying the balls their vote displayed.

Remaining question is as follows. Will the ammendment survive whatever remains of the legislative process that it might yet have to go through, including signature by the president?
 
I think this one's going to make it. Even if Bush vetoes it, they have the votes to override.

Re the list of "bad seeds", anyone surprised?
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Actually, yeah. There's some names on this list I wasn't expecting. I wasn't expecting Dick Durbin to vote no. And Tom Harkin....he must have a death wish or sumpthin' considering his constituents.
 
Dirk Turban hails from Illinois, a state the Brady Bunch graded as "A-" for gun restrictions ... er, laws. I'd be surprised if he wasn't at least partly responsible--either on the scene or behind it--in helping IL "make the grade."
 
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