Dole Misfires Badly on Gun-Safety Issue : Plan to repeal federal assault weapon ban has presidential ambition written all over it

It’s hard to imagine what propelled Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) to announce his partisan and divisive attack on the federal ban on military-style assault weapons. Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the move has everything to do with next year’s presidential campaign.

The federal law was passed last year to outlaw the sale and manufacture of 19 specific models of guns and their copycats that have no purpose other than to kill people in substantial quantities. Its passage was a shining moment for the Washington political Establishment--and a bitter defeat for the National Rifle Assn., which has such firmly held views on gun ownership that it apparently feels compelled to oppose even sensible gun control measures that most ordinary people support. Thus anyone with ambitions to become President, such as Dole, has to reckon with the NRA, a well-heeled, well-organized and very powerful advocate for its unwavering views.

Perhaps the high-stakes atmosphere of next year’s presidential race best explains Dole’s bizarre action. Just two months ago, the usually sensible Midwesterner had thrown cold water on any move to repeal the ban. And public opinion seems ever more strongly behind measures of gun control, weaponry limitation and licensing. A January national poll, for instance, showed three-quarters of those questioned solidly in favor of the assault weapons ban. And in recent votes in California localities where looser gun laws were proposed--in Fresno, Pasadena, Redondo Beach and Stockton--voters or city councils sided with maintaining or strengthening the law.

Dole’s swing against the tide of public opinion is unfortunate, and if the sole motivation behind it is his presidential ambitions, it is also outrageous.

It is one thing, perhaps, for deeply committed NRA members to fight to the bitter end for the phantom ideal of their so-called absolute protection of the Second Amendment. But it is another thing entirely for this otherwise highly respected national figure to play politics with this life-and-death issue. The task now for Bob Dole is to explain to the American people how repealing the assault weapons ban could possibly be in the country’s best interests. Indeed, his impossible task is to explain how it would be in anyone’s interest--except, of course, his own.