Did you know firearms are not subject to recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission? They never have since Michigan Congressman John D. Dingell, who sat on the National Rifle Association's board of directors got an provision added to the CPSC creation legislation that prevented it.
As The Trace, a news service covering weapons in America, reports, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has imposed recalls of candles whose flames burn too high, fleece pajamas that cut infants, and classroom chairs with loose welding. "But the Commission has never ordered a recall of a firearm, even if the weapon explodes in someone's hand or spontaneously fires a bullet -- because it has never had authority to do so," The Trace reports.
Thus is the power of the NRA. And, we will wonder if the assumption that the Second Amendment's decree that Congress shall make no law that infringes on the right to bear arms has anything to do with this.
The Trace story reports that when Dingell introduced his amendment, "He met little resistance. The sole legislator to oppose Dingell's amendment was New York Democrat Jonathan Bingham, who during deliberations on the bill, took to the House floor with a toy gun in his hand to argue Dingell's exemption should be repealed: 'This (toy) pistol will be covered under the provisions of this bill,' he said. 'But, if this were the real McCoy, if this was something that could blow up in your face and kill you or with which you could kill other people, it would not be covered. I suggest that this is a topsy-turvy arrangment.' "
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