Former U.S. Senator and Actor Fred Thompson

1. 1995 - S.735: Thompson voted for provision of an anti-gun terror bill that would have greatly expanded the role and authority of BATF to include "roving wiretaps", $100 million in additional funds and extend the statute of limitations on the 1934 National Firearms Act.
   
   
2. 1996 - S.735: Thompson voted for final passage of anti-gun bill which included provisions to expand BATFE, restrict the right of habeas corpus in such a way as to severely damage the ability of the courts to rescue honest gun owners who are unjustly incarcerated; allow the government to use "secret evidence" against certain individuals; remove protections against wiretapping wireless data; and require banks to freeze the assets of domestic groups in certain situations.
   
   
3. 1996 - H.R. 3756: Thompson voted to keep an anti-gun amendment on the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill (H.R. 3756). Anti-gun Senator John Kerry (D-MA) carried the amendment that would have made funds available for a study of tagging explosive materials, including black and smokeless powders. Many inside the firearms community this was a first step toward ammunition registration.
   
   
4. 1996 - H.R.3756: Final passage included the so-called "Lautenberg gun ban" amendment to the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill. The amendment, which was implemented retroactively, disarms gun owners for small (misdemeanor) offenses in the home -- "offenses" as slight as spanking a child or grabbing a spouse. This lifetime ban, in certain cases, can even be imposed without a trial by jury.
   
   
5. 1998 - Smith Amendment: Thompson voted against the Smith "Anti-Brady" amendment. The Smith amendment passed and would prohibit the FBI from using Brady background checks to tax or register gun owners; required the "immediate destruction of all [gun buyer] information, in any form whatsoever;" and grated private citizens the right to sue the FBI and collect monetary damages, including attorney's fees if they continued to use Brady checks to "tax" gun owners.
   
   
6. 1999 - S.254: Thompson voted to end a filibuster intended to keep anti-gun crime legislation from progressing any further.