Gun industry shielded.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Congress sent the equivalent of a cigar box stuffed with winning Powerball lottery tickets to the gun lobby Thursday, approving a bill that prohibits injured citizens and communities from suing firearms manufacturers and dealers for legitimate damages.

President Bush should refuse to sign this shameful sellout to gun manufacturers, but that won't happen at a time when the gun lobby's grip on the beleaguered White House and the Republican leadership in Congress is steelier than ever. Shortly after Thursday's vote, Bush was already signaling his intent to make the gun industry the most coddled and unregulated in America: "Our laws should punish criminals who use guns to commit crimes, not law-abiding manufacturers of lawful products," he declared.

Under the measure, at least a half-dozen pending lawsuits against the gun industry by local governments, as well as several by individuals, will be dismissed.

The bill's supporters pumped new life into the bill, which passed the House last year and was killed in the Senate, by using images of violence in post-Katrina New Orleans to play on fears of Americans. Never mind that the lack of effective gun control legislation contributed to the ready and widespread availability of firearms in the battered city.

"Americans saw a complete collapse of the government's ability to protect them," said Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's executive vice president. "That burnt in, those pictures of people standing there defending their lives and defending their property and their family," he added, "where the one source of comfort was a firearm."

God bless America, and pass the ammunition. And, oh yeah, keep those campaign contributions coming, too. While some Democrats, including Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio, supported this bill, it was championed by Republicans who just happened to have received 88 percent of the NRA's campaign contributions in the 2004 election cycle.

Despite claims to the contrary by proponents, including the White House, this bill was entirely unnecessary. U.S. gun manufacturers were hardly on the brink of being driven out of business by frivolous lawsuits, and there is no indication that they are suffering any unusual financial hardships.

From 1993 to 2003, there were a grand total of 57 lawsuits filed against the gun industry - 57 out of an estimated 10 million tort lawsuits that were filed during that 10-year period.

The bill bars local governments and citizens from suing the small number of irresponsible gun manufacturers and dealers - a group that represents no more than 1 percent of a thriving industry. If this bill had been law when the relatives of victims of the 2002 Washington area sniper shootings filed lawsuits, the dealer would almost certainly not have agreed to last year's $2.5 million settlement.

Now, thanks to a compliant Congress and White House, the gun industry will be able to hide behind a bulletproof shield of legal immunity.