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By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - From Bobby Kennedy to Columbine, gun violence has spurred a rush of gun control legislation in Congress. The school shooting in Santee, Calif., could be the exception.
Gun control lawmakers, who had trouble passing legislation when they had an ally, Bill Clinton, in the White House, realize they face a tougher task now under President Bush, supported by the National Rifle Association, and a generally pro-gun Congress.
Bush did not mention the need for new gun laws in his statement condemning Monday's shooting in the San Diego suburb, allegedly by a 15-year-old high school boy, that left two schoolmates dead and 13 other people wounded. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, the House's top Democrat, didn't mention tighter gun laws in his statement, either.
``It's not that I'm against new laws,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a leading gun safety proponent. ``But we've had such deadlock in the Congress on this.''
Schumer proposed what he said would be a less confrontational approach Tuesday, getting the NRA and other gun advocacy groups to join with gun control groups to develop a code of responsibility for families who own guns.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she was exploring various legislative avenues, including a Clinton-backed proposal to hold families that don't keep weapons in a secure place criminally responsible and attaching gun-safety measures as amendments to other legislation moving through Congress.
There was little immediate talk, however, of reviving a gun-safety package the Senate added to a juvenile crime bill after the April 1999 killings at Columbine High near Littleton, Colo.
That measure would have banned the importation of large-capacity ammunition clips, closed gun show purchase loopholes, promoted child trigger locks and prohibited juveniles with serious criminal records from owning guns. The bill died when negotiators couldn't agree on details, particularly on gun shows.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a champion of gun control legislation in the House, said she was pushing ahead with a separate bill to close the gun show loophole and was heartened by the support of a powerful Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. ``If I wasn't optimistic, I don't know how I could come to work every day,'' McCarthy said.
In the past, shocking gun incidents have been the catalyst for gun control legislation. One of the first such laws, to restrict sawed-off shotguns, machine guns and silencers, came in 1934 after an assassination attempt against President Roosevelt, and the 1968 law barring imports of ``Saturday night specials'' and other nonsporting weapons followed the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
A 1994 law banning future manufacture and imports of semiautomatic assault-style firearms followed a December 1993 shooting rampage on a Long Island commuter train that killed six, including McCarthy's husband.
During the presidential campaign, Bush said he supported closing gun show loopholes and voluntary child safety locks. But Sarah Brady, chairwoman of Handgun Control, said she was disappointed that Bush, in his response to Santee, did not cite the need to deny children access to guns.
The Brady Act requiring background checks for handgun buyers, enacted in 1993 after another spate of shootings, was named after her husband Jim Brady, the White House press secretary seriously wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt against President Reagan.
Bush said the best prevention for school violence is to teach children right from wrong. Bush and pro-gun lawmakers contend that the answer to gun violence is not more laws but tougher enforcement of existing ones.
McCarthy said she would not be deterred by the obstacles to passing gun-safety measures. Bush, she said, is ``not just the governor of Texas anymore. He's got to realize a very large percentage of people in this country believe in what we are doing.''
Uploaded: 3/7/2001
Uploaded: 3/7/2001