BY CHRIS MONDICS
Herald Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — With Congress on record as dead set against even minor restrictions on gun ownership, President Clinton’s proposal to license all handgun owners, his most ambitious gun-control initiative, seems more like a political ploy than a serious attempt to crack down on handguns.

No sooner had the President disclosed Thursday night that he would seek congressional approval for a national plan to license handgun owners and require them to pass a safety course than congressional Republicans began lining up to say the proposal had no chance to pass.

Leading the charge was Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a board member of the National Rifle Association, who said there was little support for the idea in Congress.

“Congress will look at gun-control measures, but when it comes to the licensing and registration approach they back away very quickly, because that is strongly opposed by the gun-owning community in America,” Craig said. “It was a throwaway political stunt by the President to get into presidential politics.”

Even if the plan goes nowhere, there are likely to be political benefits, analysts say.

Since the proposal mirrors Al Gore’s plan to license handgun owners, it likely would enable the vice president to remind voters that he and Clinton have fought for tighter gun controls, indeed were continuing the fight through the President’s last year in office.

“Firearms regulation is broadly popular. When you poll on it, people say they like it, so it is a good issue even though one can’t get far with it in Congress,” said Christopher H. Foreman Jr., a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. He added that the plan also is “a way to speak to the Democratic Party’s base.”

Foreman said another likely consequence of the proposal is that it will emphasize in the minds of Democratic primary voters that Gore is a proponent of stronger gun controls, particularly in contrast to his rival, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, who has proposed only a national registration of handguns.

The NRA, Clinton’s most vehement opponent on gun control, blasted the proposal on its Web site Friday as a breach of the Second Amendment and said it would have no impact on violent crime.

Bill Powell, an NRA spokesman, charged that while law-abiding gun owners would go along with the plan, criminals would continue to buy guns from the illegal black market, avoiding the licensing scheme altogether.