Gore Urges More Heat on Some Gun Deals

Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday that new penalties may be needed against the small percentage of renegade gun dealers who are the source of the overwhelming majority of guns used in violent crimes.

Gore issued his warning during and after a two-hour meeting on school safety with students from three high schools here.

The vice president cited a study released Monday by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) asserting that thousands of guns purchased from dealers have been resold--mostly by straw buyers--and used in crimes. This shows, the New York Democrat contended, that criminals are getting guns “from traffickers who feast on stores that either don’t know or don’t care that the person buying the guns is not going to keep them.”

National Rifle Assn. spokesman Jim Manown responded: “The senator should begin his effort by calling on the Clinton, er, Clinton-Gore administration to start enforcing the laws we have on the books.”

During a town hall-style discussion with the students, Gore referred to the findings and said: “It’s time to focus on irresponsible gun dealers who . . . are responsible for spreading a lot of these guns around in ways that get them into the wrong hands.”

Asked after the event to elaborate, Gore said that it “makes sense” to focus on the estimated 1% of all gun dealers who fall into this category, as identified by Schumer’s study, “because they can’t be exercising due diligence and be responsible for all that criminal behavior or be participating in the sale of weapons that are used in all that criminal behavior.”

Gore said what he has in mind are “maybe some new penalties, maybe some new standards for them to follow--to make sure that they are exercising due diligence in background checks and the other safeguards that they are supposed to be following.”

On gun control issues, the vice president has previously called for mandatory photo-licensing for all handgun purchases, a ban on “junk” guns, toughening criminal penalties for adults who sell guns to minors, mandatory child-safety trigger locks and raising the minimum age for handgun possession from 18 to 21.

Schumer’s study followed an earlier analysis by his office contending that 140 gun stores--”1/10th of 1% of all federally licensed gun dealers”--sold guns used in about 20% of crimes, including 1,400 homicides, from 1996 to 1998.

Of nearly 35,000 guns sold by these 140 dealers and later used in crimes, only 13% were still in the hands of the original buyers after three years, according to the new study.

In California, guns used in at least 50 crimes were traced to 12 stores, according to the study, which did not identify the dealers.

Schumer said the study provides evidence that criminals obtain guns through an “unregulated secondary market, where guns bought by someone with a clean record are quickly trafficked to criminals who cannot pass a Brady background check.”

But the NRA’s Manown said, “The senator only now seems to be discovering that criminals don’t buy their guns in gun stores.”

Schumer said the study should bolster the lawsuits brought against the gun industry by 29 cities and counties, including the city and county of Los Angeles.

When the Senate reconvenes in January, Schumer plans to introduce legislation requiring secondary sales to be conducted through licensed firearms dealers who conduct background checks--as is required in California by state law.

A gun control measure that would require background checks at gun shows, however, has been stalled in Congress.

Tuesday night, Gore made a dramatic appeal for tolerance of gays and lesbians during a private meeting in Des Moines with many gay activists.

At the request of local gay and lesbian leaders, reporters were barred from the session because many of the 250 participants feared retribution from employers if their sexual orientation became known.

As a concession to the press corps, however, Gore’s remarks were piped into another room in the same hotel where the journalists were gathered.

During his talk, Gore vowed as president to combat bigotry toward gays and lesbians, and repeated his recent pledge to allow homosexuals to serve in the military without special conditions.

“Now is the time to appeal to the political conscience of America--to say that this change is in the American tradition,” Gore said.

He predicted that historians will find it “nearly incomprehensible” that in this day and age so many gay and lesbian Iowans cannot be “completely free to be who they are without fear of discrimination.”

The vice president closed by asking the crowd for its support and described the election of 2000 as “a watershed election in which true change will take place.”