Divided House Defeats Gun Control Measure

A bitterly divided House overwhelmingly defeated a gun control bill Friday that had consumed lawmakers for weeks, showing just how far from consensus Congress and the country are on the best way to stem gun violence.

The modest bill, which included new safety lock requirements and a ban on juvenile possession of assault weapons, lost by a resounding 280 to 147, just 14 hours after the House voted to weaken existing background checks on certain firearm sales at gun shows.

In the end, the bill had become a seemingly contradictory measure that was as muddled as public opinion on gun control. Defeated by an odd coalition of gun control proponents who thought it too weak and gun rights advocates who thought it went too far, the measure became a mirror of U.S. opinion on the issue, which varies widely, and intensely, from region to region.

“What you saw . . . is a real reflection of where the country is: all over the place,” said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

The bill’s fate also was a reminder of the National Rifle Assn.’s renewed clout. Public outrage at the April high school shootings in Colorado sparked predictions that the group’s power was waning, but its role in derailing the gun control push showed again why the NRA has long loomed as one of Washington’s most formidable lobbies. The NRA mobilized its vast membership with a public relations drive that included direct mail, newspaper ads and spending of more than $1.5 million.

On the final House vote, 82 Republicans joined 197 Democrats in opposing the weakened bill. Only 10 Democats supported it, joining 137 Republicans. GOP leaders accused Democrats of killing the bill for political purposes, questioning their motives in opposing a bill that had at least some of the gun control provisions they sought.

“Let there be no mistake,” House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said. “The vast majority of the Democrat caucus walked away when they had the chance to walk forward for the good of the country.”

But Democrats, including an angry President Clinton, said Republicans had deliberately made the bill insupportable to them by attaching an NRA-backed amendment that critics said would ease criminal access to guns.

“It was a great victory for the [NRA],” Clinton told reporters while traveling in Europe. “But it was a great defeat for the safety of our children.”

The collapse of the bill was just the latest unexpected twist in the tortuous path the gun control issue has followed through Congress since the Colorado high school massacre catapulted the topic to the top of the political agenda. In May, the Senate first rejected, then adopted, strict new regulations on gun show purchases. House GOP leaders first embraced, then resisted, that language.

Exactly what, if anything, will now emerge from Congress on the gun issue is uncertain. The Senate gun control measures are part of a larger bill on combating juvenile crime; the House passed its own version of the juvenile justice bill Thursday, including an attack on Hollywood and a proposal to let schools post the Ten Commandments.

Negotiators from the two chambers now will work out their differences. And that means some gun control measures, such as the widely backed ban on juvenile possession of assault weapons, may emerge in the compromise.

Gun Show ‘Loophole’ Provision Dead

But almost assuredly dead is any provision closing what has become known as the gun show “loophole”: the lack of required criminal background checks on those who buy firearms from unlicensed vendors at such shows. That issue emerged as the focus of contention between pro- and anti-gun control forces in both the Senate and House. And the House’s approval early Friday morning of the amendment to actually weaken existing regulations on some gun show purchases was a principal factor dooming the overall gun control bill in Friday afternoon’s vote.

Some advocates of strict new rules on gun show purchases still hold out hope for action if the House vote arouses an angry public.

“If there is big public outcry, it could be revived,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Meanwhile, leaders of both parties expect gun control to be a campaign issue in the 2000 presidential and congressional races. Less clear is exactly which party stands to benefit the most.

The zigzag course of the issue during the recent congressional debate reflects the powerful crosscurrents buffeting efforts to write national policy on gun control. Polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans support the kinds of gun control measures passed by the Senate. But the issue’s progress in Congress has been hampered because it is, in different ways, potentially perilous for members of both parties.

Gun rights advocates are a key part of the GOP’s core constituency, and they are particularly influential in the South, the interior West and in rural districts in other parts of the country. But the party’s resistance to stricter gun control risks alienating swing voters in politically crucial suburban districts throughout the nation.

“Politically, I think it is going to highlight how extreme the Republican Party is,” said Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

But Democrats themselves risk political backlash in pro-gun-rights districts. Many party members blame their loss of Congress in the 1994 elections on the negative reaction to gun control measures passed earlier that year.

“There may be some districts where, as a party, we’re not going to be helped by the issue,” conceded House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).

The gun issue had lain dormant since the GOP takeover of Congress, but it gained urgency in the emotional aftermath of the killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. That provided the political impetus behind the Senate votes to add gun control measures to the legislation to crack down on juvenile crime. After the Senate votes, Democrats clamored for immediate action in the House. But House GOP leaders put off the debate for three weeks--a delay many now view as critical to slowing the momentum for more gun control.

“The public’s mind is fickle and fleeting,” said Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.). “I don’t think the issue has the resonance it would have had two weeks ago.”

Gun control proponents wanted to require criminal background checks of all purchasers at gun shows and allow three business days for the screening. Such checks are now required only of licensed gun dealers, not the many unlicensed vendors that sell at such shows.

The NRA backed an alternative that would have required background checks for all gun show purchases, but in only 24 hours. Critics, including law enforcement officials, argued that that would not allow enough time to identify a felon, particularly since most gun shows are held on weekends, when court records are unavailable.

Modest Victories for Gun Control

After losing the gun show vote, those who want to control access to guns won several modest victories in other amendments adopted Friday. But those gains were erased when the overall bill was defeated. Those provisions, comparable to ones passed by the Senate, would have:

* Required that all handguns be sold with a trigger lock or other safety device.

* Banned imports of large-capacity ammunition clips.

* Imposed a lifetime ban on gun ownership for anyone convicted of a violent crime as a juvenile.

* Banned possession of semiautomatic assault weapons by juveniles.

As the overall bill came up for a final vote, most gun control proponents argued that the provisions they disliked far outweighed the ones they supported.

“It is time to stop dancing to the music of the gun lobby,” said Rep. Bruce F. Vento (D-Minn.).

As it became clear that Democrats would oppose the final bill en masse, GOP leaders mounted a last-ditch effort to garner support among their rank and file.

Even Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), a leading ally of the NRA, urged conservative colleagues to swallow their reservations about new gun rules and pass the bill. “Is it perfect? No,” Barr said on the House floor after the NRA notified lawmakers that they would support the bill. “Is it good? Absolutely.”

But that wasn’t enough to persuade all of the GOP’s gun rights advocates. Many of the 82 Republicans who voted against the bill did so because it included too many new gun rules. But other GOP foes were moderates who bemoaned the influence of the gun lobby on their party.

“I hope in my lifetime that the marriage between my party and the NRA ends in a divorce,” said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.).

The bill’s defeat represented a fresh setback for Hastert, who continues to struggle to assert his leadership in a House that his party controls by a mere six votes. He had made clear a few weeks ago that he wants the House to produce gun control legislation similar to the Senate’s.

But DeLay, his hard-charging lieutenant, labored mightily to undercut the Senate bill and was pivotal in the House’s adoption of the gun show amendment that proved fatal to the entire legislation.

“Guns have so little to do with juvenile violence,” DeLay said.

DeLay called the outcome of the turbulent week “a great personal victory for me.”

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Times staff writers Nick Anderson and James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.

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* CALIFORNIA VOTES: House’s state delegation is not expected to feel any sting from its stands on gun bill. A18