Senate shoots down firearms
industry bankruptcy amendment

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By Jon E. Dougherty
? 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

An amendment that would have prohibited gun manufacturers from seeking bankruptcy protection if a court found them liable in any one of over two dozen civil lawsuits failed substantially in roll call vote on the Senate floor yesterday.
The amendment, offered by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was offered when the Senate took up debate on S.625, the “Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999,” but the measure went down to defeat by a vote of 68-29.

A simple majority was required to pass the amendment.

In a statement describing his amendment on Tuesday, Levin said it would have altered the bankruptcy code “so that a firearm manufacturer or distributor who is found liable or may be found liable for negligence or reckless action cannot escape accountability by filing for reorganization in bankruptcy.”

Levin said his amendment had “the endorsement of the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Handgun Control, Inc., which is Sarah Brady’s organization, and the Violence Policy Center.”

Before the vote, Levin delivered prepared remarks, comparing his amendment to other bankruptcy provisions already on the books.

“For instance, we have in the law a provision that says that if you drive while drunk and you injure somebody, you cannot discharge that obligation by going bankrupt,” Levin said.

“We have a provision that says that if you have an obligation to the government for a student loan, you are not going to be able to get rid of that by going bankrupt,” he said.

“We have a provision in the bankruptcy law that says if you have an obligation to a co-op or to a condo for a fee that you owe to them, that under certain circumstances, that’s not going to be dischargeable in bankruptcy.

“And what we are saying now, in this amendment, is that where a gun manufacturer or a distributor through his own reckless or negligent or fraudulent conduct, causes damages to individuals or to our communities, that they should not be able to reorganize in bankruptcy court and get rid of that debt,” he added.

After the overwhelming defeat of Levin’s amendment, WorldNetDaily contacted the senator’s office, but no one was available to comment.

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Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter for WorldNetDaily.