Senate Backs Bush, Rejects Funding to Buy Back Guns

The Senate voted Thursday to back President Bush’s plan to kill the government’s gun buyback program, handing a victory to gun rights forces.

Senators voted, 65 to 33, against a proposal by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to provide $15 million for the program, created less than two years ago by President Clinton. The Bush administration announced last month that it was ending the program, saying there was no proof that it was taking guns from criminals.

Schumer tried adding the provision to a $113.4-billion measure financing housing, environment, veterans and science programs for next year that the Senate approved, 94 to 5. The House version of the bill, approved last week, contained no money for the firearms purchasing program.

Under Buyback America, police departments have received up to $500,000 to buy guns in and around public housing projects for about $50 each.

“Someone is alive today because of this program,” Schumer said.

Opponents said the program was a failure that siphoned money that public housing authorities could better use to upgrade housing or to help the homeless or others.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administered the program, credited it with removing 20,000 guns in 80 cities in its first year. But the agency also said the buybacks were removing just 1% to 2% of guns from those communities.

The vote was not a clear referendum on the Senate’s sentiment on gun issues. To pay for his amendment, Schumer would have taken the money from funds provided to public housing authorities for anti-drug efforts.

Nonetheless, the buyback initiative had been opposed by the National Rifle Assn. and supported by gun control advocates.

In July, the House voted to back Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s plan to shorten to one day the period the government keeps background-check records of firearms purchasers.