Top GOP Senators Reverse on Checks Into Gun Buyers

Battered by charges they are beholden to the gun lobby, Senate Republican leaders orchestrated a major policy reversal Thursday and proposed requiring background checks on firearms purchased at gun shows.

Senate Republicans also joined Democrats in voting, 97 to 2, to pass a ban on juveniles possessing certain semiautomatic assault weapons, and, with surprisingly little opposition, adopted a long-sought amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to ban the import of high-capacity ammunition clips used in assault weapons.

These votes--the first gun control measures to be approved by the Senate since Republicans took control of Congress in 1994--came as GOP leaders scrambled to contain the political fallout produced by Wednesday’s vote for a National Rifle Assn.-backed proposal to make background checks at gun shows voluntary.

A final vote on the GOP plan to require the background checks at gun shows was postponed because Democrats wanted more time to study the measure, which some gun control advocates said is riddled with loopholes. But the GOP proposal was considered likely to be approved, with one leading sponsor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), predicting all 55 Republicans would vote for it.

Many Democrats pledged to fight the new proposal, arguing it would still allow some transactions at gun shows without background checks. The vote on the Republican provision is expected today.

Thursday’s rapidly changing developments were emblematic of the shifting, complex politics of gun control following last month’s massacre at a Colorado high school. On Wednesday, it appeared the NRA had scored a major victory when the Senate narrowly defeated the background checks at gun shows and instead endorsed a much weaker provision.

But that vote generated an intense backlash Thursday--not only from President Clinton but also from some Republicans who had second thoughts. The GOP leadership’s embrace of tougher gun control measures shows the sensitivity among many Republicans to perceptions that the party is out of touch with growing public concern over the spread of gun-related violence to schools and politically powerful suburbs.

A top aide to the GOP leadership conceded that the Littleton shootings may have been a watershed in the politics of gun control. “It was a seminal event,” said the aide to a strongly pro-gun Republican. “It was the last straw, and it certainly galvanized people.”

Whether the gun control measures now being backed by Senate Republicans become law remains uncertain. The measures, attached to a juvenile crime bill, have not been approved by the House, where opposition to gun control has generally run stronger than in the Senate.

Still, many gun control proponents have been sensing a change in the issue’s political dynamic since 1994, when many analysts believed that support for tougher firearm regulations helped cause Democrats to lose their majorities in Congress. Since then, there has been a spate of school shootings, and many polls have shown an increase in public support for stronger gun control.

Recently, Republican presidential contender Elizabeth Hanford Dole backed away from her party’s unwillingness to support new gun controls. And McCain, another Republican presidential contender, led Thursday’s behind-the-scenes retreat from the GOP’s opposition to mandatory background checks at gun shows.

Another striking measure of the shifting political ground came on the Feinstein amendment. Just one year ago, when she proposed an identical ban on the import of high-capacity ammunition clips, the measure lost, 54 to 44. Thursday the provision won, 59 to 39.

Feinstein said a big factor in the shift has been the series of school shootings in recent years in rural and suburban communities. “People have a habit of saying it’s just in the big cities. What these events have shown is that’s a fallacy.”

The Senate’s roller-coaster debate unfolded as lawmakers continued work on the legislation designed to crack down on juvenile crime. Gun control proponents had targeted the bill for a slew of amendments, hoping the emotional aftermath of the Colorado shooting would give powerful momentum to their cause.

They were dealt a bitter defeat Wednesday when the Senate voted, 51 to 47, to kill the measure that would have required background checks for all purchases at gun shows. Under current law, only federally licensed dealers have to conduct background checks. But 40% of the guns sold at gun shows are by private individuals and other unlicensed dealers who do not have to conduct the checks.

After defeating the Democrats’ measure to mandate checks on all gun show purchases, the Senate passed the alternative to allow--but not require--such background checks. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), a member of the NRA’s board of directors, also included provisions that gun control advocates said were significant loopholes. Among them were provisions that would make it easier for sellers to cross state lines for gun shows, eliminate background checks at pawnshops and eliminate certain record-keeping about gun sales.

Following the vote, Clinton lashed out at Senate Republicans, saying they had “passed up this chance to save lives” in the wake of the Colorado massacre. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno also hammered away: “I am stunned that less than one month after the worst school shooting in our nation’s history, the Senate has decided to make it easier for felons, fugitives and other prohibited purchasers to buy guns.”

As the political and policy implications of the Craig amendment became clearer, many Republican senators on Thursday began urging their leadership to backtrack and bring up a measure that would impose the broader background check requirement.

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) told colleagues he was prepared to switch his position on the Craig amendment and asked GOP leaders for another vote on the issue. Enough Republicans were voicing doubts that their leaders were concerned they would lose any rematch, a GOP leadership aide said.

McCain, Smith and several other senators worked with Craig behind the scenes to draft new language. Craig insisted the new proposal is not a reversal of his original intention, just a “correction” of it.

Critics saw it differently.

“The NRA shot Senate Republicans in the foot,” said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), a gun control advocate. “Now they are hopping around.”

Leading gun control advocates attacked Craig’s proposal as a sham. Administration officials said that, as written, the measure would allow special categories of sellers to escape the background checks. Craig denied that charge.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticized Craig for keeping the provision that allows people to retrieve their guns from a pawnshop without a background check.

In another sign of the GOP effort to get the upper hand on the gun control front, Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) proposed an amendment to ban juveniles from buying or owning certain assault weapons. The ban includes an exemption for weapons used in the course of employment, job training, hunting or target practice.

Ashcroft is up for reelection in 2000 in a state that last month defeated a referendum, which he and the NRA backed, that would have allowed people to carry concealed weapons.

Ashcroft said the amendment would bring the law on assault weapons in line with handguns, which cannot be bought or owned by anyone under 18. “We take a step forward to bring the law to a place of rationality,” Ashcroft said.

The measure was a major element of a broader assault weapon proposal that Feinstein had planned, so she threw her support behind Ashcroft’s measure.

Then Feinstein offered the ban on ammunition imports as a separate amendment. It is designed to fix what she called a flaw in a 1994 law that prohibited domestic production and possession of high-capacity ammunition clips, which have 10 or more bullets. An exception was made to allow certain clips to be imported. As a result, Feinstein argued, millions of high-capacity clips are being imported.

“Unless we close some of these loopholes, the point of the [1994] legislation--to dry up the supply of assault weapons as well as these big clips--won’t happen,” she said.

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Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.

* GAME OVER: Disneyland pulled the plug on several video games in which humans are targets of guns. C3