Clinton Cracks Down on 1,020 Gun Dealers

With tougher gun control proposals languishing in Congress, President Clinton invoked his executive powers Friday to crack down on the small percentage of gun dealers who are the source of a majority of weapons used in crimes.

Clinton ordered federal agents to target 1,020 gun dealers in what he termed the “most aggressive effort ever undertaken to ensure responsible behavior by gun dealers.” The dealers make up only 1.2% of the nation’s federal licensed gun dealers but accounted for 57.4% of nearly 200,000 guns traced to crimes in 1998, according to a new report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Clinton ordered stepped-up inspections of the dealers cited in the report, including 132 that sold guns linked to 50 or more crimes.

“When 12 children are dying every day in America because of gun violence . . . we can’t wait for congressional action,” Clinton said at the White House. “Dealers whose guns most frequently wind up in criminals’ hands will now be subject to intense scrutiny.”

Under his directive, about 450 dealers whose guns were used in crimes within three years after their sale will be required to provide information on used guns in their inventories, including serial numbers and models. That will allow authorities, for the first time, to trace used guns sold by the dealers and recovered in crimes, said Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

While the administration can take some of the steps Clinton outlined Friday, others require congressional approval. These include giving federal agents authority to conduct three surprise inspections a year of gun dealers. Currently, one is permitted.

Additionally, Clinton said that he will seek from Congress a $280-million increase in the new federal budget to hire 1,000 more federal and local gun prosecutors and 500 more ATF agents and inspectors. He also is asking for legislation to require the licensing of those purchasing new handguns.

The National Rifle Assn.’s chief lobbyist, James Baker, dismissed the Clinton announcement as an “election-year stunt” designed to harass gun dealers.

“It’s the classic political strategy: When you’re really not doing much, hold a press conference to convince the voters you are,” added NRA spokesman Bill Powers.

But Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leading gun control advocate, said: “Given the deadlock in Congress, this is about the best thing the administration can do on its own to greatly limit the supply of guns to criminals.”

In announcing the new effort, Clinton lent support to Vice President Al Gore, who in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has advocated cracking down on renegade gun dealers. Clinton’s announcement also serves the Democratic strategy of keeping gun control a hot issue in the party’s bid to take control of the House.

Bruce Reed, Clinton’s domestic policy advisor, pledged that the administration will continue to take executive actions “all year long to keep guns out of the wrong hands and to press Congress” to pass gun control legislation.

The NRA has opposed new gun laws, contending that the administration is not enforcing existing ones.

A bill requiring background checks on all sales at gun shows, child-safety trigger locks on new handguns and a ban on imports of high-capacity ammunition clips passed the Senate last spring after a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Colorado claimed 15 lives, including those of the two teen gunmen. But the bill has been stalled because of House opposition.

The federal report issued Friday did not specify how many of the problem gun dealers are in California. A study conducted last year by Schumer traced guns used in at least 50 crimes to 12 California dealers. Federal authorities have refused to identify the dealers.

“Just because a gun is traced back to a particular dealer doesn’t mean that the dealer has done anything wrong,” said Robert Ricker, a consultant to the National Coalition of Firearms Retailers. Some dealers may have sold a large number of guns traced to crimes because they are high-volume dealers, he said.

Still, Ricker said, the group is interested in working with the administration because “we all have an interest in seeing that the bad guys are in jail and the honest dealers are protected.”

Gun dealers might be participants in trafficking schemes or simply unwitting pawns of straw buyers, federal officials said.

Federal officials said that they will inspect suspect dealers “to ensure they are in full compliance” with federal firearms regulations. One potential hitch, however, is the limitation on one surprise inspection per year.

“Even if these dealers are in full compliance with the law, ATF inspectors will try to identify improvements in the dealers’ procedures that might make them less susceptible to straw purchasers and other traffickers,” a federal official said.

About 50 dealers who have kept poor records or failed to cooperate with authorities in tracing guns also will be targeted. They will be ordered to provide the government with firearm transaction records for the last three years and every month in the future.