As you may already know, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” has already passed the Senate and now waits for Congress to move on it. However, did you know that Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy tried to debunk the bill by adding ludicrous gun control amendments leveraging police safety as reasoning? Furthermore, Senator Kennedy was humiliated when Law Enforcement opposed his amendments! Will this slap-in-the-face wake up the senile senator or is it just one of many times he has been caught in dishonest legislation manipulation motivated by warped ideology?

There are two versions of Bill S.397 “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” waiting for the 109th Congress. Fortunately, Ted Kennedy’s attempted amendment manipulation of the bill was unsuccessful. The bill passed in the Senate with 96% of Republicans supporting and 68% of Democrats opposing.

Thankfully, the massive national “Fraternal Order of Police” openly opposed the amendments saving the integrality and intent of this necessary legislation. Additionally, The “Law Enforcement Alliance of America” also spoke out in opposition to Senator Kennedy’s amendments.

This legislation is “To prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages resulting from the misuse of their products by others.” It not only helps to preserve domestic firearms manufacturers, but also strikes a blow to frivolous lawsuits in general, a problem facing any industry today.

Senator Kennedy attempted to add an amendment to the legislation to expand the definition of “armor piercing ammunition” to include rifle ammunition capable of penetrating body armor. However, due to the lose definition, “hunting ammunition” in general would be redefined as “armor piercing” ammunition.

Caught up in his lies, Kennedy claimed he had no intention of outlawing hunting ammunition. Thankfully, Senator Larry Craig clearly demonstrated that the amendment would, in fact, ban common hunting ammunition.

Backing Senator Kennedy’s dubious amendment to the legislation are all the typical anti-2nd amendment Democrats (roll call): John Kerry, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein and Sarah Brady. Also taking the floor with Senator Kennedy was Richard Durbin, Evan Bayh, and Bill Nelson. Oddly enough, Nelson later flip-flopped and voted for final passage.

These small victories are important to preserving our constitutional right to keep and bear arms as well as protecting the U.S. firearms industry. However, in the past decade we have lost far more ground than we have reclaimed under the Bush administration.

Enjoy the freedoms of today as they will eventually fade away; The United States of America is gradually gaining socialist law and the constitution yields to so called liberal idealism and international opinion.

The Letter:

GRAND LODGE,

FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE,

Washington, DC, July 29, 2005.
Hon. LARRY CRAIG,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.

DEAR SENATOR CRAIG: I am writing to advise you of our strong opposition to Amendment 1615, offered by Senator Kennedy to S. 397, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.”

Senator Kennedy will certainly present his amendment as an “officer safety issue” to get dangerous, “cop-killer” bullets off the shelves. Regardless of its presentation, the amendment’s actual aim and effect would be to expand the definition of “armor-piercing” to include ammunition based, not on any threat to law enforcement officers, but on a manufacturer’s marketing strategy.

The truth of the matter is that only one law enforcement officer has been killed by a round fired from a handgun which penetrated his soft body armor–and in that single instance, it was the body armor that failed to provide the expected ballistic protection, not because the round was “armor piercing.”

It is our view that no expansion or revision of the current law is needed to protect law enforcement officers. To put it simply, this is not a genuine officer safety issue. If it were, Senator Kennedy would not be offering this amendment to a bill he strongly opposes and is working to defeat.

The Kennedy amendment was considered and defeated by the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2003 on a 10-6 vote. We believe that it should be rejected again.

On behalf of the more than 321,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, I thank you for taking our views on this issue into consideration. Please do not hesitate to contact me, or Executive Director Jim Pasco, through our Washington office if I can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Chuck Canterbury,
National President.