Tell Frist to block the Assault Weapons Ban without a vote...

On Tuesday, the Senate is scheduled to begin consideration of legislation to limit class action lawsuits -- a prime candidate for so-called liberal "killer amendments," including the Feinstein amendment to extend the ban on semiautomatic firearms and magazines.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has threatened to offer her semi-auto ban to any "appropriate" legislative vehicle, and the class action bill is about as "appropriate" as any on the Senate's legislative schedule.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has, at his disposal, a variety of parliamentary techniques to prevent Feinstein from offering the semiautomatic ban. Back in March, he chose NOT to use these parliamentary maneuvers during the debacle over the ill-fated gun makers' protection act.

The debate over this pro-gun bill resulted in a free-for-all which led to killer amendments being added to the bill -- amendments like the Feinstein gun ban.

GOA is urging Frist to learn from his mistakes and to use his leadership office to insure that the Feinstein amendment is not offered to S. 2062.

Another mission from the Gun Owners of America, with advice from Publicola. They don't want the Assault Weapons Ban coming up for a vote in the Senate, not as an amendment to anything, and not on its own. Even though the amendment vote last time went against us (52 votes for the AWB) we should have more than enough votes to filibuster, or to otherwise block the bill. The trick is making sure those procedures get used.

The person to contact on this is Senator Frist (Senate Majority Leader). You can reach him by telephone at (202) 224-3344, or through his website. The Senate will reconvene Tuesday, July 6th, so starting from that date we need to keep a close eye on things. It's important to note that you should get your opinion in early; we aren't likely going to have much time to organize opposition if Frist caves on this issue.