By John Aloysius Farrell

WASHINGTON - Gun control groups erupted in anger at Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Fort Morgan yesterday after she sponsored an amendment that deleted funding for the federal trigger lock law.

Musgrave called the trigger lock law “burdensome.� She told the House on Wednesday that “trigger locks do not stop gun crimes or accidental shootings.�

“Lawn mowers can be dangerous,� Musgrave argued. “Should we mandate that all lawn mowers be sold with a blade lock?�

“Many things around the house are dangerous when used without proper instructions or supervision,� Musgrave said.

But Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland warned that Musgrave’s amendment “will lead to more accidental gun shootings…including more deaths of children.�

The law, which passed last fall and took effect in April, requires that gun dealers and manufacturers include trigger locks with the handguns they sell.

Musgrave’s amendment, prohibiting the expenditure of federal funds to enforce the law, passed 230 to 191. All of Colorado’s representatives except Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Denver and Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, voted for the amendment.

“Last year, in one of the few sound moves taken by Congress, a law was passed that said gun dealers should provide locks,â€? said Sarah Brady, of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Last night, in a tragic display of how many members of Congress will do anything the gun lobby tells them to do, a majority of the U.S. House voted to repeal the law.”

“As someone who knows so many victims of unintentional shootings, and as a mother, this makes me ill,� Brady said. The members of Congress who voted for Musgrave’s amendment “have lost their senses.�