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Conservative Democrats seek to end gun control
Eunice Moscoso – Cox Washington Bureau
Sunday, February 25, 2001

Washington — Some conservative Democrats have three words of advice for their party leaders: Drop gun control.

“This is not an issue that helps the Democratic Party, particularly in rural America,” said Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas). “Those of us who believe in the Second Amendment and the right of gun ownership have been pretty outspoken in telling our friends this is an issue they need to leave alone.”

Turner and other House Democrats, including Texans Max Sandlin and Ralph Hall, are concerned about renewed efforts to push gun control in Congress.

Two powerful senators — Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) — are working on a bill that would increase background checks at gun shows and provide additional money to enforce existing laws.

In addition, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is planning to introduce a measure that would mandate background checks for all buyers at gun shows and expand the definition of a gun show to include events, such as flea markets and swap meets, where firearms are not the main product sold.

The Texas lawmakers say that gun control efforts have hurt Democrats, including former Vice President Al Gore.

“If the Democrats and the Gore campaign had not been so strident in opposition to gun rights . . . there’s absolutely no doubt that Vice President Gore would be president,” said Sandlin. “It cost him a tremendous amount of support across the South. It cost him support in his home state of Tennessee. It was a big issue in West Virginia, Arkansas . . . and hurt him in voter turnout throughout the country with the labor vote.”

Sandlin said that passing any gun control bill will be difficult, especially in the House.

In the last Congress, with the Clinton White House clamoring for gun control, a bill never made it out of a conference committee.

The measure started out strong in 1999, when gun control took the spotlight in Congress after a tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used high-powered guns to murder 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.

A month after the shooting, the Senate stunned the powerful gun lobby and voted for a juvenile justice bill that included provisions such as increasing background checks at gun shows. But the measure never made it through the House, and efforts to incorporate it into a joint House-Senate juvenile justice bill failed.

With President Bush in the White House, chances for a gun control bill could be even more bleak.

As governor of Texas, Bush generally sided with the National Rifle Association, signing bills that allow people to carry concealed weapons and prevent municipalities from suing gun makers.

But supporters of gun control say the issue has momentum because of increasing public support.

“The gun issue works in different places in different ways,” said Joe Sudbay, director of public policy for the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group based in Washington.

Women across the country strongly support gun control, as do urban and suburban voters, he said.

Sudbay disputes that supporting gun control cost Gore the White House.

The swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan voted for Gore despite a strong anti-Gore campaign there by the NRA, he said. The NRA spent more than $20 million on the 2000 election, most of it to elect Bush.

> ON THE WEB: For more information about this topic:

National Rifle Association: www.nra.org

Violence Policy Center: www.vpc.org

Rep. Max Sandlin: www.house.gov/sandlin

Rep. Ralph Hall: www.house.gov/ralphhall

Rep. Jim Turner: www.house.gov/turner