. . . And the Gun Toll Rolls On

This week marks a sad anniversary. It’s been a year since two heavily armed students terrorized Columbine High School, killing 13 and wounding 23 others before taking their own lives. A year of unfathomable grief for the victims’ families, Colorado and the nation. And a year of inexcusable stalemate in Washington.

The Columbine tragedy was so horrific that it at first promised to shame lawmakers into tightening gun laws. The proposals President Clinton put before Congress last year were sensible and modest: Require buyers at gun shows to pass a background check, mandate that trigger locks be sold with all new handguns and ban the importation of ammunition magazines used on assault guns.

None of these proposals would end the violence or even prevent a massacre like that at Columbine. But they could prevent a child from firing a loaded gun or make it harder for a criminal to acquire one. All were thoughtful, incremental and overdue.

Throughout that sad spring and summer, members of Congress averted their eyes from the bloody scenes that followed in Granada Hills, Atlanta and elsewhere around the nation. Lulled by gun lobby money, Congress eventually said no to any and all proposals. With the Columbine anniversary drawing near, however, even staunch gun supporters must have feared being seen as callous in the face of the grief they knew would be revisited this week.

A package similar to the measures that died last year is back before lawmakers, but sadly it seems no more palatable this year. Instead, earlier this month the House rallied around a measure giving block grants totaling $100 million to the states to stiffen existing laws punishing those who’ve already committed a crime involving guns. The vote was a resounding 358 to 60 for this legislation, which the National Rifle Assn. touts as its answer to gun violence.

There is nothing wrong with this measure--indeed, stiffer prison terms might deter some gun crime. But it is not nearly enough, and its effects would be felt after a gun got into the wrong hands, not before. How much better it would be if Congress actually worked to avert tragedies by trying to make sure criminals and kids didn’t get their hands on guns in the first place.

Perhaps no gun tragedy is great enough to pry such action out of this Congress. If so, it would be a sad, clear victory of campaign money and lobbyist pressure over public safety and the voters’ will.