Clinton Wants All Options Studied to Curb Gun Violence : Firearms: Citing new public attitude, he says that ‘it’s time to stand up’ to gun lobby. Federal registration and wider police searches of suspects might be considered.

Citing what he called “a sea change in public attitude” on gun violence, President Clinton declared Wednesday that “it’s time to stand up” to the gun lobby and consider all options--including federal standards for weapons registration and wider police authority to stop and search persons suspected of carrying illegal firearms.

“It has gotten so serious,” he said, referring to Tuesday’s Long Island commuter train shootings and other recent violence, “that we should consider a lot of things that were rejected in the past.”

Interviewed by reporters at a luncheon session at Blair House, the President said he wants to study a wide range of options before committing himself to specific proposals. But pressed on whether he would support greater “stop and frisk” authority for police, he said he “wouldn’t take that off the table.”

“There has been a sea change in public attitude,” Clinton said. “I am convinced that most Americans now understand how profoundly important these crime and violence issues are, and how it’s time to face them and how it has nothing to do . . . with the culture of hunting and sportsmanship in which I was raised, myself.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)--chief House sponsor of the recently enacted Brady law, which provides a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases--announced that he will introduce a new and tougher package of restrictions when Congress returns in January.

The package is backed by former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, who was wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan; his wife, Sarah, and Handgun Control, Inc., the advocacy group they head. It would require handgun buyers to submit to a fingerprint check, take safety training and undergo a seven-day “cooling off period” before purchase.

Brady, for whom the Brady law is named, has been confined to a wheelchair since 1981.

With public pressure for more controls mounting, a Los Angeles Times poll released Wednesday found that, since enactment of the Brady measure, 64% of Americans still think that gun control laws are not strong enough, whereas only 7% say they are too strong and 24% find them adequate.

In another development, the American Medical Assn., many of whose members have long opposed gun control, adopted a sweeping new policy statement favoring tighter curbs on the sale and ownership of firearms.

The statement, adopted by the AMA’s 435-member House of Delegates at a meeting in New Orleans, reflects a growing conviction among physicians that gun violence has become one of the nation’s biggest public health problems. Among other things, the AMA endorsed a ban on possession and use of firearms by unsupervised youths under 18, higher licensing fees for firearms dealers and higher taxes on guns and ammunition.

At the Blair House luncheon, Clinton told reporters that the Long Island shootings were “a good argument” for congressional approval of an amendment to the crime bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would restrict automatic and semiautomatic weapons.

Her proposal, he said, would have prevented the gunman’s 9-millimeter weapon from having a 15-shot clip, which Clinton said allowed him to fire with such rapidity that most people on the train were “paralyzed” into inaction. The gunman managed to reload once and begin firing again before several passengers overpowered him.

Clinton said there had been “a substantial and somewhat sudden” change of attitude on gun control in Congress, which had resisted imposing tougher restrictions until this year.

An interesting test of how substantial the change has been, he said, will be whether the House accepts the Feinstein amendment when it takes up the crime bill early next year. “The House has generally been more reluctant on these things,” he said.

The Feinstein proposal, which got more support than Clinton had expected, passed the Senate by a vote of 56 to 43. The Senate crime bill, however, now must be reconciled with the House version before final legislation is approved.

With the Administration stepping up its campaign for action, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh told the National Press Club that banning the sale and use of assault weapons “is of the utmost importance” and that he thinks “the most stringent restrictions are something that all law enforcement people would vigorously pursue.”

Clinton told reporters that he had instructed Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to study a broad range of gun control options, including recent suggestions by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and New York Mayor-elect Rudolph W. Giuliani that there be a nationwide handgun registration system.

The President said he had talked with Giuliani about his proposal during a meeting Tuesday at the White House and Giuliani had suggested that “maybe it ought to be handled like cars and it ought to be done at the state level, but according to some sort of national standards.”

The President said Reno will consider the suggestions by Riordan and Giuliani before making new gun control recommendations to him.

“One of the things we need to look at is whether this should become more like some other forms of regulations like clean-air regulations, where the state and local regulations are on top of the federal regulations and all have to be complied with,” Clinton said.

As Clinton was leaving the luncheon, he stopped and talked to a reporter who told him that a new poll shows overwhelming public support for his challenging the National Rifle Assn. on gun control issues. “It’s time to stand up to them,” the President declared.

The NRA and other opponents of gun controls can be expected to oppose any new restrictions, especially a national system of licensing or registering handguns. The Supreme Court, however, already has given police broad powers to stop and frisk pedestrians for guns or other weapons.

The legislation that Schumer plans to introduce would bar gun possession by anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor, such as assault, child abuse or spousal abuse, and would require a special license for anyone owning an arsenal of 20 guns or more, or 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Other provisions would require ammunition dealers to be licensed, would raise the annual license fee to $1,000, require background checks for gun store employees, forbid sales at gun shows and create a private cause of action for gun law violations.

The proposed bill also would ban “Saturday night special” handguns and rapid-firing assault weapons, triple the 10% federal tax on handguns and raise the tax on handgun ammunition from 11% to 50%.

Times staff writers Sara Fritz in New Orleans and William J. Eaton and David G. Savage in Washington also contributed to this story.