GOOD NEWS for gun rights:
NEW YORK — A federal jury on Wednesday cleared 45 makers and distributors of handguns who were accused of contributing to violence in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
The suit challenging the companies’ marketing practices was filed by the NAACP.
The jury in New York ruled in favor of the gun makers after five days of deliberations.
Because of the procedural posture of the case, this doesn’t actually put it to bed, but it’s still good news. Then there’s this:
The Republican-controlled House will not renew the federal ban on Uzis and other semiautomatic weapons, a key leader said yesterday, dealing a significant blow to the campaign to clamp down on gun sales nationwide.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) said most House members are willing to let the ban expire next year. “The votes in the House are not there” to continue the ban, he told reporters.
His spokesman, Stuart Roy, said, “We have no intention of bringing it up” for a vote. . . .
In May 1994, the Democratic-controlled House passed the Clinton-backed gun ban by two votes. A few months later, House Speaker Thomas Foley (Wash.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Jack Brooks (Tex.) and several other Democrats who supported the ban were voted out of office after the NRA and other gun activists targeted them in a political campaign.
The NRA’s power ebbed and flowed throughout the rest of the 1990s, hitting a high-water mark after Gore’s narrow loss in 2000. Gore lost gun rights bastions such as Arkansas, West Virginia and his home state of Tennessee, in part, some Democratic analysts believe, because he was seen as hostile to gun owners. In this year’s first debate among Democratic presidential hopefuls, only Al Sharpton vigorously endorsed the registration and licensing of handguns.
Dodd Harris still thinks that Bush has blown it on this one, though, by claiming to support an extension of the ban. This won’t make the antis happy enough to matter, and it’s irritated a lot of supporters. Plus, saying you’ll support a bill because you expect your colleagues to keep it from reaching the floor seems, well, almost Clintonian.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s more background from Dave Kopel.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Jacob Sullum notes that the judge, Jack Weinstein, was “hand-picked” by the plaintiffs.