NRA wins battle in House, but might not get to fight in Senate

The legislative gun that the National Rifle Association (NRA) put to the head of the District of Columbia government might not have any bullets.

The NRA won a decisive, bipartisan victory in the House on Wednesday on a bill that strips the District of Columbia’s government of much of its ability to regulate guns. But there is no agreement to bring the bill to the floor in the Senate — and with only seven legislative days left on the schedule, it is unlikely the bill will get floor time this year.

{mosads}The bill, which according to District supporters represented unfair meddling by Congress in city matters, could get wrapped into a continuing resolution — must-pass legislation that keeps the government operating when Congress leaves. But even advocates of the bill concede that’s unlikely.

“We have a long list of things to do and not a lot of time to do them,” said a Senate leadership aide.

D.C.’s Democratic delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, said in a statement that she’s been assured by several senators they will put holds on the bill. The holds prevent floor debate and can only be broken with 60 votes and time-consuming legislative maneuvers.

“Although I was confident we could kill the bill in the Senate, it would have been a grave mistake for the District to fail to pull out all stops in the House,” Norton said in a statement.

She added that she had talked about the bill with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), though she did not indicate he’d given her any assurance the bill was dead in the House.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who has sponsored a similar bill in the Senate, was circulating a letter for signatures Wednesday urging Reid to bring up the bill before Congress goes home for the year. That could be more likely if there is a lame-duck session after the election.

Hutchison is seeking out the 55 senators who signed a letter to the Supreme Court urging it to toss out D.C.’s handgun ban. The high court did just that in June.

“It is our hope that the Senate will act on this critical piece of legislation before the end of the 110th Congress,” said Chris W. Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist.

Even if the bill doesn’t pass this year, Wednesday’s vote was a big win for the NRA, which is commonly associated with Republicans. The gun lobbying group had made the bill its top priority this year.

It also demonstrated the degree to which Democratic leaders have given in on the gun issue and the amount of support the NRA can count on within the Democratic caucus, especially in an election year.

Eighty-two Democrats voted for the measure, hammered out in negotiations between the NRA and Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and John Tanner (D-Tenn.) and introduced by Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.).

The support went well beyond the ranks of conservative and Blue Dog Democrats to the realm of generally liberal lawmakers who have fought the NRA in the past, several of whom are running for statewide office.

{mospagebreak}Both Reps. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) voted for the bill, though they’ve rarely voted with the NRA in the past.

Mark Udall ardently supported gun control in the wake of the Columbine massacre in his home state in 1999. But this year he’s running for Senate against conservative Republican former Rep. Bob Schaffer, whose campaign manager never misses an opportunity to call Udall a “Boulder liberal.” His cousin, Tom Udall, got a “D-minus” rating from the NRA in 2006.

{mosads}Other Democrats voting for the bill were Rep. Tom Allen (Maine), who is seeking to unseat moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins, and Rep. John Spratt, who is regularly targeted by Republicans in South Carolina. Reps. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.), Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) also voted for the bill.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) is pro-gun, but he voted “present” because he doesn’t like Congress to legislate for D.C.

“I do that as a protest against Congress acting like we’re elected city councilmen,” Obey said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not vote on the matter, and the rest of the Democrats’ top leaders voted against it. But the NRA amendment could not have gotten to the floor without Pelosi’s approval and the assistance of the Rules Committee, which she controls.

The debate also showed that some Democrats are quite secure in using the language of the NRA.

“If they take your guns away in the nation’s capital, then Prescott, Ark., and many other small towns may be next,” Ross said.

It’s a big switch from the final years of the Clinton presidency, when, in the wake of the Columbine massacre, the administration firmly backed new gun laws, such as closing the “gun-show loophole.”

Many attribute Al Gore’s loss of the 2000 presidential election to the Clinton administration’s support for gun control. If Gore had won pro-gun states, including West Virginia and Arkansas, he would have beaten George W. Bush.

The legislative campaign is a result of the June Supreme Court decision that threw out the District’s decades-old handgun ban and determined that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun.

The NRA and pro-gun lawmakers say the D.C. government moved too slowly and reluctantly to change its gun regulations.