House Approves GOP Gun Crime Bill

Rushing to dress up its resume on gun control before the one-year anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings, the House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would provide $100 million to states that impose mandatory prison terms on gun-toting criminals.

The bill would funnel the money over five years to states imposing mandatory minimum five-year sentences on anyone who uses or carries a firearm in a violent crime or serious drug trafficking offense or for a violent convict who is caught with a gun.

Some Democrats attacked the Republican-sponsored legislation as a “fraud” that would do little to reduce gun violence unless coupled with stronger gun laws, such as background checks of all buyers at gun shows.

Republican leaders are “trying to look like they’re doing something about gun violence when, in fact, they’re not,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). Still, a majority of Democrats joined Republicans in passing the bill, 358 to 60. It now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved.

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart declined to say whether President Clinton would sign the bill into law. Lockhart discounted the measure’s importance, accusing Republicans of playing “a cruel political trick on the American public” because the bill falls short of what is needed to stem gun violence.

The debate over gun control has become more intense as the anniversary approaches of the April 20 shootings last year at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., that claimed 15 lives.

Clinton traveled to Annapolis, Md., Tuesday to keep the heat on the GOP-controlled Congress for failing to pass more gun bills. He attended the signing ceremony of a state law that requires trigger locks on all guns and prohibits violent juvenile offenders from owning a handgun until they reach the age of 30.

“I hope that the U.S. Congress is paying attention to this event today, because every child in America deserves the same protection you have given Maryland children, and only Congress can do that,” Clinton said in Annapolis.

Last year, after the Columbine shootings, the Senate approved gun control legislation, including requiring mandatory trigger locks on handguns, banning the import of large-capacity ammunition clips and juvenile possession of assault weapons, and expanding background checks at gun shows. But the legislation stalled in the House and efforts to reach a compromise have failed.

The bill passed Tuesday would prod states to embrace programs similar to Virginia’s “Project Exile,” which has been credited with reducing gun violence by using federal gun laws to send gun-toting felons to prison with long sentences.

To qualify for the funds, states could enact their own mandatory sentencing laws for crimes involving guns or work out an agreement with federal prosecutors. Under such accords, gun-wielding criminals would receive minimum five-year sentences in a federal court.

Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), the bill’s chief sponsor, identified only six states that now would be eligible for the federal funds: Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, Texas and Colorado.

But California also could be eligible for some of the money, said Grayson Wolfe, an aide to Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale), a co-sponsor of the bill. California law mandates prison sentences of at least 10 years for wielding a gun in the commission of more than a dozen crimes, 20 years for firing a gun and 25 years to life for injuring or killing someone.

The House bill, backed by the National Rifle Assn., was approved less than three weeks after it was introduced, in contrast to the gun control legislation that has languished in a House-Senate conference committee since August. The major sticking point in the earlier legislation is the length of time--24 hours or 72 hours--that should be allowed for background checks of buyers at gun shows.

McCollum acknowledged that his bill was put on a fast track because the GOP leadership wanted to deliver legislation on guns before the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, in which two students fatally shot 12 teenagers and a teacher before killing themselves. Republicans brought the father of a Columbine shooting victim to Capitol Hill last week to testify in support of the measure.

McCollum said that the funds sent to states could be used to bolster the criminal justice system, including hiring more judges and prosecutors and enlarging prisons. But Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) complained that the $100 million is a “paltry sum that doesn’t fill the gaping gun-enforcement needs.”

Among California’s 52-member House delegation, 10 voted against the bill. Along with Lofgren, Democrats opposing the measure were Reps. Howard L. Berman of Mission Hills, Bob Filner of San Diego, Barbara Lee of Oakland, Juanita Millender-McDonald of Carson, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, Pete Stark of Hayward, Maxine Waters of Los Angeles and Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma.

Rep. Tom Campbell of San Jose, who is running for the Senate, was the sole Republican to vote against it. Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) did not vote.

Times staff writer Edwin Chen contributed to this story.