Clearly Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s (R-4) recent push to gut a federal law requiring gun dealers to provide trigger locks when selling handguns is part of an effort to rally her conservative base for her upcoming election.
The question is: what help is she expecting-or already getting-from the radical gun rights group, Gun Owners of America, “the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington?”Gun Owners of America (GOA) has been a supporter of Musgrave since way back, when she first ran for Congress in 2002. She got nearly $10,000 from the group’s PAC for that election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The group also sent out fundraising alerts urging members to support her.
But last October, GOA was none too pleased with her. Despite her promises to the gun rights group, she had failed to sway her fellow House members to go with a version of a
major bill to shield gun manufacturers from victims’ lawsuits that did not contain the GOA-dreaded provision to require gun dealers to provide trigger locks when selling handguns.
Said the GOA at the time:
The Senate passed its gun control-laden version as Congress was getting ready to go out for their summer recess. At that time, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s office had promised to mobilize pro-gun members in the House to oppose the Senate version, by asking them to join her in approaching the leadership in favor of H.R. 800. A Musgrave-led effort such as this would have made it much more likely that the House bill would have been considered. Unfortunately, Rep. Musgrave decided to do nothing, and the voices that were demanding S.397 — gun locks and all — carried the day.
What’s worse, when it came time to vote on the gun liability bill, she was a no-show!
Way to go for a lawmaker so devoted to gun rights that she founded a special Second Amendment Caucus. No wonder Musgrave is riding hard now to make it up to the GOA.
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