Senate Votes to Extend Gun Curbs

The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday that would prohibit anyone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from possessing or purchasing a firearm.

The measure enjoys strong support from President Clinton but has been vigorously opposed by the National Rifle Assn. and other gun groups.

The legislation, passed 97 to 2 as an amendment to an unrelated bill, now moves to a joint House-Senate conference committee where its fate will be determined.

Tony Blankley, press secretary to House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), said he believes, but is not certain, that House conferees will accept the legislation. A similar provision died in the House earlier this year.

If the measure becomes law, its effect will be less dramatic in California than in most other states because a state law already prohibits the purchase or possession of firearms for 10 years by anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor.

“Our homes should be places of security,” said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), sponsor of the amendment. “Unfortunately, for many women and children who suffer in silence, home is a place of danger and death. There is no reason why wife beaters and child abusers should have guns.”

An estimated 2 million to 4 million acts of domestic violence are committed each year nationally. And according to the FBI, about 1,500 deaths a year are caused by these acts of violence--65% of them with guns, according to the FBI.

“All too often, the difference between a battered woman and a dead woman is a gun,” said Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), a longtime advocate of the gun ban provision.

Reliable estimates of how many people would be denied firearms under the measure are not available. The FBI said it does not compile such data because record-keeping on domestic-violence charges differs greatly from state to state.

But in most states, assault of a domestic partner or child is a misdemeanor unless it results in serious or permanent injury. In addition, a large number of felony charges of domestic violence are reduced to misdemeanors during plea bargains.

Despite Clinton’s endorsement and the overwhelming vote for the measure in the Senate, House members still could stop its passage. When the same amendment was attached to another bill earlier this year--legislation aimed at deterring and punishing people who stalk and harass others--the House refused to pass the measure because of the gun lobby’s opposition.

The current amendment is attached to the Senate version of a Treasury-Postal Service appropriations bill. The House version of the appropriations legislation does not include the ban. The House-Senate conference committee that must reconcile differences in the two bills will decide whether to include the domestic-violence provision in a final version that will have to be passed by both chambers.

“I can’t imagine that we’d want to reject it,” said Blankley. “Our position for years has been that the best way to stop handgun violence is to outlaw people with criminal convictions from having handguns.”

Wellstone, who sponsored a similar amendment during the last session of Congress only to see it watered down because of pressure from the gun lobby, said he is more optimistic this time.

“I think it’s going to be hard for them to knock this out,” Wellstone said. “This country’s public opinion about issues dealing with domestic violence has dramatically changed and people in politics have picked this up.”

Wellstone predicted that the provision’s chances will benefit from Republican efforts to appear sensitive to issues important to women, given polling data showing Democrats generally running ahead among female voters.

An NRA spokesman, asked about the group’s opposition to the measure, said the organization believes that if domestic violence cases were handled properly by authorities, offenders would be charged as felons and would not have access to firearms.