Gore Proposes Nationwide System for Gun Licensing

Presidential contender Al Gore threw himself headlong into the raging gun-control debate on Monday, proposing a nationwide licensing system that would require safety checks and photo ID’s for all gun buyers.

The vice president’s plan would essentially make gun buyers subject to the same sort of licensing requirements now imposed on drivers. States would have broad discretion in implementing the program, but aides said federal funding might be tied to meeting certain national standards.

“One thing would be clear,” Gore told cheering police officers and schoolchildren at a campaign stop in Boston. “Unless you obtain a license, pass a background check and pass a gun safety test, you could not buy a handgun. Not in a gun shop, not at a gun show, not on a street corner, not anywhere in America.”

The licensing proposal is the cornerstone of a broad anti-crime agenda Gore unveiled, saying that if elected president he would toughen laws on guns, drugs and jail sentences. The plan underscored the emergence of gun control as a hot-button issue in the 2000 presidential election in the wake of the Littleton, Colo., school shootings, but it also left Gore a half-step behind rival Bill Bradley on the issue--in both substance and timing.

The former New Jersey senator, Gore’s competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination, last week put out a broad gun-control plan of his own. He proposed not only testing and licensing gun buyers, but also registering all of the nation’s 65 million handguns.

“We are happy that the vice president has started to support our proposals on gun control,” said Bradley spokesman Eric Hauser. But Gore should have gone further, he added.

Gore, in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” said he was “not opposed” to Bradley’s gun-registration proposal but he believes licensing gun owners will be just as effective.

Gore predicted “the gun lobby is sure to have a fit” over his proposals. The National Rifle Assn. did not return phone calls seeking comment on Gore’s speech Monday, but in the past it has spoken out against both licensing and registration on 2nd Amendment grounds.

Indeed, the NRA and other gun-lobby groups went into high gear this spring when Congress considered less restrictive gun-control measures, including background checks for sales at gun shows. Gore played a central role in the debate, casting the tie-breaking vote in favor of a key measure in the Senate. A similar gun-control measure was defeated in the House.

The political pitfalls of the issue were underlined Monday by the decidedly mixed response Gore’s proposal received from the White House.

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said that President Clinton viewed Gore’s proposals as “a solid package of new crime initiatives.” But he added that the president believes that the photo-licensing idea “has zero chance in this Congress of passing.”

The Gore and Bradley proposals “virtually assure that whoever the Democratic nominee is, they’ll be running on a strong gun-safety platform,” said Handgun Control president Bob Walker.

“The question now is, ‘What are the Republicans going to say?’ ”

Thirteen states--California not among them--now have some form of gun-permit or licensing system in place, although standards vary widely, Walker said.

Gore’s proposal would create a uniform licensing system, aides said, with the safety requirement likely based on a written exam. Licensees would also have to pass the same type of criminal-history and mental-health background check now required at the time of the gun purchase. Gore also said he would impose a complete ban on cheap, easily concealed “junk” guns that are widely used by criminals, and require gun manufacturers and federally licensed dealers to report all handgun sales to state authorities to allow better tracking.

Gun control is only the most controversial element of the vice president’s plan, which he touted as “the most effective and comprehensive anti-crime strategy our nation has ever seen.” Other elements include:

* Expanded drug treatment and enforcement programs throughout society, along with mandatory drug testing of prisoners. “Let’s make prisoners a simple deal--before you get out of jail, you have to get clean,” Gore said.

* An end to “the hateful practice” of racial profiling by police in stopping citizens, and a push for law-enforcement agencies to do more training and hiring of “historically underrepresented” minorities.

* An initiative to add a Victims Rights Amendment to the Constitution, ensuring that a victim has a right to compensation from the attacker and is notified when the offender is released back into the community.

* Tougher and speedier sentencing laws, including additional time in prison for offenders who commit crimes in front of children.

The updated and archived coverage of the 2000 presidential race is available on The Times’ Web site:

https://www.latimes.com/elect2000