Senate Approves Limits on Gun Crime Lawsuits

The Senate easily passed legislation Friday long desired by the National Rifle Assn. that would block most civil lawsuits against gun makers and dealers whose weapons are used to commit crimes.

Despite opposition from gun control advocates, 14 Democrats -- most from rural or heavily Republican states -- joined most Republicans in the 65-31 vote.

The bipartisan vote underscored the changing politics of gun control, an issue Democrats championed in the 1980s and early 1990s, but have since backed away from as politically damaging. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada was among those voting for passage.

Stocks for some gun makers rose Friday as it became clear the bill’s supporters would defeat amendments by gun control advocates to allow lawsuits on behalf of children and law enforcement officers harmed by firearms. Handgun maker Smith & Wesson’s shares rose by 25%, while those of Sturm, Ruger & Co., which makes a variety of firearms, were up 11%.

Proponents said the bill was written to protect law-abiding manufacturers and dealers. Some advocates linked the legislation to national security, saying lawsuits brought by municipalities and individuals threatened to bankrupt the firearms industry at a time when the nation is at war.

“What we have crafted is a very narrow kind of exemption from predatory lawsuits,” said Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), the bill’s author. “It is intended to stop these kinds of abusive lawsuits.”

Opponents said gun makers did not face a liability lawsuit crisis, and criticized the legislation as offering unprecedented protection to a single industry. The bill also requires dismissal of pending lawsuits.

“It’s a blatant special interest bill to protect gun makers and dealers, even if they make firearms recklessly available to criminals and terrorists,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said. He called it a demonstration of the “raw, special interest power” of the gun lobby.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) voted against the bill. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was absent.

The bill has broad bipartisan support in the House, which is expected to pass it in September, after the summer recess. The White House supports the measure, and President Bush is expected to sign it into law upon passage by the House.

Last year, gun control supporters -- mostly Democrats -- were able to block the shield bill in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The GOP gain of four Senate seats in November’s election improved the bill’s prospects. And some Democrats have become more wary of the political cost of supporting gun control proposals.

“It’s clear that things have changed,” said Lawrence G. Keane, chief counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group representing gun manufacturers.

The Senate’s vote was a measure of the political clout of the NRA, one of the strongest lobbies in Washington. Gun control advocates noted that some Democrats they had counted as allies ultimately supported the bill.

The NRA said in a statement that its victory “would not have been possible without support from senators from both sides of the aisle.”

Freshman Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), who had advocated for gun control as a state senator, signed on as a co-sponsor of the legislation, along with West Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Robert C. Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV. Byrd is up for reelection in 2006, and Bush has twice carried West Virginia.

Neither Rockefeller nor Byrd co-sponsored the measure defeated in the Senate last year.

Byrd “has heard from many hundreds of his constituents about this issue over the course of the past year,” spokesman Tom Gavin said. “In West Virginia, hunting and guns are part of the culture, part of the heritage of the state. Many fear the impact on that heritage that lawsuits that threaten the viability of the gun industry in America might have.”

The legislation would bar lawsuits against gun manufacturers, dealers and trade associations brought by individuals or communities seeking to sue them for damages caused by the illegal use of guns. Opponents contended that the restriction would unfairly limit the rights of gun crime victims to sue, even if manufacturers or dealers were grossly negligent.

Cities and counties across the country began filing suits against the gun industry in 1998, seeking to hold it partially responsible for damages caused by urban gun violence, said Dennis Henigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization that advocates gun control.

Alarmed by the suits, the industry lobbied effectively in 33 states for state laws providing some protection to manufacturers and dealers. But the law passed by the Senate would preempt those laws and provide broader protection from most civil lawsuits.

The Senate did adopt, by a 70-30 vote Thursday, a Democratic amendment that would require child safety locks to be sold with all handguns. Similar measures have been passed before, only to be killed, and the amendment adopted Thursday was not expected to pass the House.

“The American people overwhelmingly support safety locks,” said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), the amendment’s lead sponsor. But he acknowledged to reporters that the attachment might not survive.

In this year’s changed political atmosphere, the bill’s backers succeeded in protecting it from the so-called “poison pill” amendments that caused them to torpedo their own legislation last year. These amendments, pushed by Democrats, included extending the ban on the sale of some assault weapons, which expired last September. Another amendment would have applied tougher requirements on the sales of guns at shows.