House Undercuts Effort to Pressure Firearm Makers

Striking at a major federal gun control initiative, the House passed a measure Wednesday night that would stymie an effort to pressure gun makers to accept restrictions in firearm design and sales.

The narrowly approved measure would prohibit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from spending funds to coordinate a growing effort by local governments to steer gun purchases for their law enforcement agencies to gun makers that agree to a code of conduct. So far, the only gun manufacturer to sign the code is Smith & Wesson.

The vote was 218 to 207.

A total of 411 jurisdictions--including many in California--have agreed to give preference to gun makers that sign the code. Under it, gun makers agree to install trigger locks, develop “smart guns” that can only be fired by their owners, toughen screening of buyers and institute other reforms.

After the vote, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo condemned what he termed the House’s “callous action,” saying that it strikes at the heart of the agency’s ability to work with communities to reduce gun violence.

“The House has now proven that it is firmly in the hip holster of gun lobby extremists,” he said.

The measure, an amendment to a spending bill funding HUD, the Veterans Affairs Department and several other smaller agencies, was backed by 173 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent. Voting against it were 162 Democrats, 44 Republicans and one independent.

Whether the measure will become law is unclear. The Senate has yet to take up its version of the spending bill. The issue is likely to end up in a House-Senate conference committee. The bid to block HUD spending on the gun control initiative could be dropped during those negotiations.

In a display of the muddled nature of gun control politics on Capitol Hill, the House on Wednesday night rejected a second amendment that sought to block HUD from making sure that Smith & Wesson abides by the terms of the code of conduct.

That amendment was defeated, 219 to 206. The seemingly paradoxical votes confused even the sponsor of both measures, Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.), who could not offer an explanation.

During debate on his amendments, Hostettler argued that the preferred buying program could leave police with inferior weapons. He told his colleagues: “Don’t allow HUD to overrule officer safety for a political agenda.”

He added that his amendment “merely states that federal taxpayers will not give money to HUD to micromanage local law enforcement.”

After the votes, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), a leading advocate of gun control, expressed confidence that the amendment will be blocked from becoming law.

“We should be helping Smith & Wesson,” she said. “Did I ever think I’d be defending a gun manufacturer?”

The votes were the first significant House action on guns since hundreds of thousands of mothers turned out for the Million Mom March in Washington and other cities on Mother’s Day in support of stronger gun laws.

Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) called the amendments “another example of how far out of step” the Republican leadership is with the public. “They don’t think good corporate citizenship should be rewarded.”

President Clinton, for his part, again assailed Congress on Wednesday for failing to take final action on several gun control proposals that the Senate approved more than a year ago. The Senate votes came in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in April 1999, but the measures since have languished.

Clinton said that a new report on illegal trafficking of guns underscores the urgency for the Senate-passed proposal to expand background checks of buyers at gun shows. That and the other measures have been stalled in a House-Senate conference committee that held its only meeting 10 months ago.

The report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that about 84,000 firearms were diverted from July 1996 to December 1998 to illegal traffickers and were often used in crimes. The report found that gun shows were a major venue for the trafficking.