American Psychos Redux

Nice work, all you culture-of-life-family-values fans. The current climate of wildly unregulated and unchecked weapons flow from manufacturers into the hands of criminals and terrorists gets an assist toward even greater unaccountability:

"The gun industry is likely to win sweeping protection against civil liability lawsuits in the U.S. Senate this month, reflecting a more firearm-friendly Senate after the 2004 elections, lawmakers said on Thursday.
Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, lead backer of the legal protections bill, said he was confident it would win Senate approval with few if any unpalatable amendments."

Larry Craig has a fascinating voting record, chock full of tidbits like his votes against allowing background checks on purchasers at gun shows (twice) and against trigger locks that save kids' lives. He's a staunch ally of the NRA--that culture of life fraternity that never met a weapon it didn't want to fuck like a bunny--and he thinks the new pro-deadly weapon Congress is just the oppotunity to give his brothers-in-arms what they want. On the other hand:

"Brady (Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence) center president Michael Barnes said that even in a "tougher political environment" the group hopes to rally opposition to the liability bill and attach amendments, including one to require background checks at gun shows.
The bill is a top priority for the National Rifle Association..."Unfortunately, as long as gun-ban advocates are able to burden firearm manufacturers with the costs of defending themselves in court, the entire gun industry is at risk of being eradicated," the NRA said on its Web site.
"We'd like to close loopholes that would allow criminals and terrorists to buy weapons without background checks," Barnes said, adding, "It's hard to believe that we wouldn't be able to muster a majority now" given the fears of terrorism."

Hard to believe if you're a normal, thinking person, but not hard at all if you're in love with death, as our favorite, Peggy Noonan, likes to say. Especially if terrorism isn't something you really care about except as a political straw man for leveraging your job security on the Hill. Tell me again, who is it that's pro-life around here?

For those who like their dramas poignant, Senator Dianne Feinstein, a co-author of the now-expired 1994 assault weapons ban, is trying to inject amendments into the bill that will make it at least a little less wignutty:

"For instance, instead of trying to reinstate the assault weapons ban, she said she would try to limit sales of powerful 50 caliber weapons so that they could only be sold through federally licensed dealers, not at gun shows."

Wouldn't that be special? But with these people, no regulation is acceptable. We now have a situation where nearly half the Congress is allied more or less to the wild-hair philosphies, xenophobia, and deep-rooted misanthropy underpinning American survivalism. When it's every man for himself, who cares who else dies, even in a culture of life?