Ashcroft to Target Gun Crime, but Without New Laws

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, setting the stage for a potential battle with gun control advocates, said Wednesday that he wants to launch a nationwide crackdown on gun violence but doesn’t think more weapon laws are the answer.

“I think we’ve got enough laws on the books,” Ashcroft said on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” the first interview he has given since being sworn in as attorney general last week after a bitter six-week confirmation battle.

In a clear swipe at former President Clinton, Ashcroft also said in the interview that he wants to “escalate the war on drugs, relaunch it if you will.”

More young people are trying drugs today, Ashcroft suggested, because of the mixed message conveyed by Clinton’s own acknowledgment that he had experimented as a young man. Ashcroft said he wants to ensure strong enforcement of drug laws, “rather than wink and give the nod in some sense, by saying, ‘I didn’t inhale, but I wish I had.’ ”

While Ashcroft highlighted guns and drugs as two of his priorities in law enforcement, he provided few details about how he would effect change in either area. An aide said specifics--such as how much additional money the Justice Department might spend on these programs or how any expanded efforts would be implemented--will be worked out in the next few months.

On the gun issue, Ashcroft said the solution to violence would come in more aggressive enforcement of laws that are currently on the books, a view long espoused by the National Rifle Assn.

On a day when a gunman was shot by the Secret Service outside the southwest gate of the White House, Ashcroft said he wants to “emphasize that we’re going to take a hard line on people who used guns in the commission of crime. . . . We should nail them.”

As a model, Ashcroft pointed to the success of a pilot program in Richmond, Va., called Project Exile, which is aimed at focusing increased federal resources and penalties on felons who use guns to commit crimes.

In contrast, Ashcroft blamed the Justice Department under former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno--whom he will meet today for lunch--for allowing federal gun prosecutions to dip 46% in the last eight years. Officials who served under Reno say that trend simply reflects their willingness to let states take the lead in prosecuting gun crimes, but critics say it shows a troubling laxity in enforcing gun laws.

The get-tough program in Richmond, Ashcroft noted, has been credited with helping to reduce gun violence in the city dramatically, and, he said, “I think we’ll want to do that across the country.”

NRA officials could not be reached for comment on Ashcroft’s remarks. But the organization, which has backed Project Exile, is sure to support Ashcroft’s plans enthusiastically, observers said.

Ashcroft pledged Wednesday to reverse the decline in federal gun prosecutions, but leaders in the gun control community were skeptical. They said any meaningful attack on gun violence must include efforts to plug loopholes in the current laws.

“If Mr. Ashcroft thinks that Project Exile is the solution to reducing gun violence, he’s wrong,” said Nancy Hwa, a spokeswoman for Handgun Control, an advocacy group in Washington. “It doesn’t go far enough, unfortunately.”

Gun control advocates said that authorities should strengthen a new federal system to track gun ownership data and should enact reforms to close loopholes, such as the one that lets people buy weapons at gun shows without background checks.

Despite Ashcroft’s public pledges during his confirmation hearing last month and again Wednesday night, gun control advocates said they remain suspicious of him because of his voting record in the Senate and the significant contributions he has received from the NRA.

“Our concern is that now that he’s in charge, is this the fox guarding the henhouse? You can talk all you want about enforcing the law, but you have to be vigilant,” said Joe Sudbay, public policy director for the Violence Policy Center, a group favoring toughened gun control.

During the interview, Ashcroft acknowledged that his hard-fought confirmation battle received “more attention that I expected,” as his critics skewered his conservative record on abortion, civil rights and a range of other issues. But he said he bore no ill will toward the 42 Democratic senators who voted against him--the most no votes for an attorney general nominee in more than 75 years.

“I think the Senate came to the right conclusion,” he said. “As [sports commentator] Dick Vitale says, a W is a W, and an L is an L.”