I just received my response from Bayh. Here is the full text:
Dear Mr. emc:
Thank you for contacting me regarding S.1805, the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act." I welcome your thoughts and comments on this matter.
Throughout my career in public life, I have opposed legislation that fails to appropriately balance the need to maintain a safe society with the ability of law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms responsibly. In general, laws relating to firearms should place the highest priority on putting criminals who use guns in jail and second on ensuring that law abiding criminals use their guns responsibly.
As you may know, the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" sought 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 unlawful use of their products by third parties. This legislation did not pass the Senate on March 2, 2004 by a vote of 8 to 90. As the debate on S.1805 concluded, neither gun control advocates nor gun rights advocates supported this bill. We need to find a balanced approach to preserve the rights of citizens to own firearms and companies to make them while supporting reasonable rights and responsibilities for gun owners. Given that 90% of the Senate did not support the legislation as amended, it is obvious that most believed, including myself, that we did not find the right balance.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I hope that the information that I have provided is helpful. My website,
http://bayh.senate.gov, can provide additional details about legislation and state projects, and you can also sign up to receive my monthly e-newsletter, The Bayh Bulletin, by clicking on the link at the top of my homepage. Having your input is valuable to me, I hope that you will continue to advise me on matters of importance to you.
Best wishes,
Evan Bayh
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Hmmm..... la de da! What's this say? Not much, other than the last sentence in the third paragraph. Looks like it's time to drop him a note and make it clear that this sort of non-response doesn't mean much in the real world.
FWIW,
emc
