Clinton Backs Colorado Gun Control Push

President Clinton brought his crusade for tougher federal gun control laws to Colorado on Wednesday, vigorously promoting local efforts to put on the state ballot an initiative to require background checks of all buyers at gun shows.

The president’s visit came just eight days before what promises to be an emotional first anniversary of the tragedy at nearby Littleton, where two students at Columbine High School shot to death 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.

“You deserve a national government that follows your lead,” Clinton told several thousand gun control supporters at the Colorado Convention Center.

The president spoke with great fervor and often with emotion. He told his audience that the eyes of the nation are on Colorado, “a state with a broken heart.”

If the initiative effort here succeeds, “other states will follow your lead,” Clinton predicted.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican who also backs the initiative, stayed away from the rally, saying he did not want to participate in an event at which Clinton sought to pressure a GOP-controlled Congress to act on the gun show issue in federal legislation.

But Clinton insisted: “This is not about party politics. It’s about saving people’s lives.”

Last year’s Columbine shootings spurred the U.S. Senate to approve several gun control proposals, including a controversial bid to ensure that all those who buy firearms at gun shows are subjected to background checks that could take as long as three days to complete. Such checks are designed to prevent felons from obtaining guns.

Largely because of opposition to the gun show provision, all of the gun control measures have been stalled in the House of Representatives.

In Washington on Wednesday, Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Clinton blaming Democrats for the impasse on the legislation. House Democrats, Hyde said, have chosen “sound bites at the expense of sound policies.”

But Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the panel’s top Democrat, said that a compromise Hyde is promoting contains “the same old loopholes” as previous proposals.

Outside the hall where Clinton spoke in Denver, several hundred anti-gun control demonstrators noisily protested. One person in the auditorium interrupted Clinton’s remarks, shouting a protest against U.S. policy toward Iraq. He was quickly shouted down as the president told him: “Sir, this meeting is not about you and not about me. So would you please let me give the speech?”

The focus of the rally was the gun show issue, which Clinton called “a serious problem.”

The rally was sponsored by SAFE Colorado, a grass-roots organization leading the petition drive to put the initiative on the state ballot. The proposal would allow as long as three days for background checks.

Citing experience with the federal law that requires licensed sellers to conduct background checks, Clinton said that 70% of such checks are completed “within minutes” and 95% “within a day.” He added:

“The 5% that can’t be done within a day should still be done . . . because they are 20 times more likely to be rejected because of a criminal background or another problem.”

SAFE (which stands for Sane Alternatives to the Firearms Epidemic) began its initiative petition after the Colorado House Appropriations Committee in February killed a bill to close the so-called gun show loophole.

Clinton said the background checks now required by federal law have prevented more than half a million felons and fugitives from acquiring guns.

“Gun crime [is] down more than 35%, homicide down to a 31-year low. It worked,” he added.

The U.S. Senate last May passed a bill to close the gun show loophole, with Vice President Al Gore casting a tie-breaking vote. But the House refused to go along.

According to gun control advocates, as many as 5 million people attend 4,000 or more gun shows annually in settings such as convention halls, fairgrounds and flea markets--now the preferred venues among criminals, juveniles and others who are legally barred from buying guns.

After the rally, Clinton participated in a town hall meeting at the University of Denver on gun violence that was televised by MSNBC.

In both appearances, Clinton equated gun control measures to airport metal detectors and automobile seat belts: as preventive safety tools.

“Gun safety cannot be the only area of our national life where we say no to prevention,” Clinton said. “Colorado is here to say we have lost enough of our children. It’s time to have prevention, too, in this important area of our national life.”

Earlier this week, Clinton went to Annapolis, Md., to tout another state-level gun control initiative, attending the signing of a law requiring child safety locks on new guns. The president in recent days also has taken note of other state initiatives to curb gun access.

But he said in Denver that a national framework is needed because the patchwork of state laws enables criminals to easily exploit loopholes.

“All these [state] steps have helped to protect more of our children. But every child in America deserves these protections,” Clinton said. “Reducing gun violence is a national challenge.”

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Times staff writer Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this story.