House Republicans Propose Splitting Gun-Control Bill

House Republicans on Monday threw the debate on gun legislation planned for Wednesday into new disarray with a surprise proposal to split it into two bills--one focusing on youth crime and violent culture and a second on gun shows.

Republicans said they structured the debate that way to make it cleaner and simpler, but surprised House Democrats said it would create procedural and political obstacles to passing new gun-control measures.

Both sides agreed the vote could be extremely close.

A spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said the Republican leadership wanted to “clarify the debate” in the hope of passing legislation.

The spokesman said one group of mostly conservative lawmakers liked the tough youth-crime component, and another more liberal group liked the gun measures, and that separating them enhanced prospects of passing both.

Democrats disagreed.

“I am frankly confused by where we are,” said House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). “They seem to be writing and rewriting the bill as each hour passes.”

Gephardt accused Republicans of catering to the National Rifle Assn. by trying to kill or water down the requirement for background checks at gun shows, which Democrats view as weaker than the version the Senate approved in May.

Gephardt said that by separating the bills, lawmakers would have to cast a vote on gun shows alone, and it could not get swept into law as part of a more comprehensive piece of legislation. He recalled that some NRA allies voted against the assault-weapons ban but approved the bigger 1994 crime bill in which it was included.

By isolating the gun-show vote, Republicans--and probably about 30 to 40 pro-gun Democrats from mostly rural regions--would have a chance to oppose that highly contentious measure.

Meanwhile, Vice President Al Gore told the nation’s mayors at a meeting in New Orleans on Monday that he had underestimated the ability of the NRA to “call the shots in Washington.”

“Will we let the NRA call the shots in Washington or will we cross party lines to make our children safer?” Gore said to more than 300 city leaders at their annual meeting. He urged the mayors to express their support for the gun-control legislation.