Feinstein halts bill that would shield gun dealers

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 29, 2006 | by Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has frozen a bill that she says would gut federal agents' ability to shut down or severely penalize reckless gun dealers.

"This legislation would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the ATF to penalize gun dealers who have broken the law, and to prevent rogue dealers from continuing to sell guns," said Feinstein, D-Calif., in announcing the Senate hold she'd placed on HR 5092. "I cannot consent to allowing such a bill to pass through the Senate without any opportunity to debate the merits or offer amendments."

Feinstein noted that the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association wrote to Congress on Sept. 25 urging them to oppose the bill, noting it "would have a devastating effect on the ability of law enforcement to stem the flow of firearms from lawbreaking gun dealers to violent criminals."

Any senator can place a "hold" on a bill to keep it from being offered on the floor without 60 senators' approval.

The National Rifle Association, which supports the bill, fired back.

"Dianne Feinstein told '60 Minutes' that if she could get every man and woman to turn their guns in, she would," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam on Thursday. "As a supporter of draconian gun- control and gun-ban measures, it is not surprising that the senator would stand in the way."

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Modernization and Reform Act, introduced by Rep. Howard Coble, R- N.C., and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., differentiates penalties based on the seriousness of the violation and the size of the firearm business, and requires that any ATF decision on a dealer's license be reviewed by an administrative law judge.

Supporters say it gives the ATF more flexibility.

The House passed HR 5092 Tuesday on a 277-131 vote; Arulanandam noted that about a third of House Democrats supported it.

All Bay Area lawmakers except House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, voted against it.

"At a time when California cities are seeing a rapid increase in gun homicides, often committed by criminals who get guns through the illegal gun market, now is not the time to be curtailing ATF's power to enforce our gun laws," said Berkeley's Griffin Dix, president of the California Million Mom March Chapters of the Brady Campaign, of the bill recently.