Shootings Raise Congressional Interest in Gun Compromise

Shootings this week at a grammar school in Michigan and fast-food restaurants in Pennsylvania have prompted lawmakers to renew efforts to break a congressional deadlock on gun legislation.

Challenged by President Clinton on NBC-TV’s “Today” show, four senior Republican and Democratic lawmakers agreed to meet at the White House on Tuesday.

The congressional delegation will include Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairmen of the Senate and House judiciary committees who have struggled in vain since last summer to craft a compromise juvenile justice bill that includes some modest controls on the sale and possession of firearms.

The Republicans will be joined in the White House meeting by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D- Vt.), Hyde said.

“There’s been a House version and a Senate version of this bill for eight months, and they have done nothing,” Clinton said on the television show. “Meanwhile, 13 kids every day--every single day there are 13 children who die from guns in this country.”

While Clinton turned up the heat on an issue that Democrats believe will help them in upcoming elections, Hyde said Thursday that he would welcome the president’s help in nudging Democrats to accept a compromise on one of the most contentious issues: regulation of gun shows, which are a source of many unchecked firearm sales.

Hyde, a moderate within his party on that issue, has been promoting a compromise on background checks at gun shows. His proposal would extend a deadline to review potential gun sales from 24 hours to three business days if initial checks turn up red flags.

Most Democrats have been holding out for a background check proposal that is simply three business days--a provision included in a bill that barely passed the Senate last year after the fatal shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Hyde said that the Senate bill stands no chance in the House.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart suggested that a compromise that leaves out the issue of background checks at gun shows would not be acceptable to Clinton.

Hyde said he and Hatch are also pushing for child-safety locks on guns, a ban on the importation of high-capacity ammunition clips used with automatic and semiautomatic weapons, and new curbs on juvenile weapons possession--all concepts the president supports.

Times staff writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.