Apologies if this is a double post....I looked quickly, but didn't see this posted.
Source
Despite sniper, gun control off political radar
Once a hot issue, now its barely a whisper
Wednesday, October 9, 2002 Posted: 2:36 PM EDT (1836 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Despite frightening sniper attacks just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol, the once hot issue of national gun control appears to be dead and buried just a few weeks before hotly contested congressional elections.
Gun control initiatives took on rare momentum after the Columbine school massacres in April 1999. Each time another attack occurred at a school, a workplace or a child care center, pro-gun control lawmakers rushed to urge new laws and anti-gun control lawmakers dug in to resist. Ultimately the anti-gun control forces prevailed.
That was then. Now, amid a series of terrifying attacks not far from the very neighborhoods in which some lawmakers live, shop and send their children to school, barely a whisper is being heard about gun control in either the House or the Senate.
Some gun control advocates interviewed this week suggested that in the long run, the hard-to-crack Maryland sniper case might spur new efforts to enact state or federal laws on "ballistic fingerprinting," which would require records of unique features of each gun.
But it will be an uphill struggle and it won't start now.
"We know the political realities and we're not going to get anything through right now," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and a long-time gun control advocate.
Boxer noted that gun control is a factor in some state elections this year, including Maryland and California.
Eventually, she predicted, the issue will reemerge on the national stage. "Sadly the momentum is on our side," she said. "Sadly because of the violence in America."
According to Robert Spitzer, a gun control expert at the State University of New York Cortland College campus: "The Republicans don't want to be seen as rabid gun-toting zealots."
"(And) many Democrats still seem to believe that the gun issue hurt them in 2000 -- including in Tennessee, Arkansas, and West Virginia," he said, referring to three states that Democrat Al Gore had not counted on losing.
But Spitzer argued that the electoral picture was actually more subtle. The National Rifle Association succeeded in squelching post-Columbine legislation and making lawmakers fear the group's power. But most of the candidates that the NRA endorsed in key 2000 Senate races actually lost, he said.
They are petrified'
New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed and son injured by a deranged shooter on a Long Island commuter train in 1993, said convincing her colleagues that the gun issue won't harm them has been "my battle since the 2000 elections."
"There are people here who certainly support gun safety issues and they are petrified to talk about it," said McCarthy, who is sponsoring a modest bipartisan bill aimed at closing gaps in the national instant background check system that has a chance of passing before Congress breaks this month.
A bill that would protect gun manufacturers from liability lawsuits was expected to go to the House floor next week but has been delayed. Sponsor Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, said it was put off because of "the heavy workload before Congress."
McCarthy and other critics of the bill suggested that House Republicans didn't want an NRA-backed bill on the floor while the region was spooked by a sniper.
An NRA spokesman was not available for comment but Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, an NRA board member, said the sniper case showed that the anti-gun forces have it all wrong.
"They have focused all their energy on handguns as the weapon of choice for criminals and said that if we can take them all off the street the world would suddenly be a safer place. Now there is a deranged person using a long gun as a weapon -- and they can't answer that any more," Craig said.
"The answer is law enforcement and it always has been," he added.
Amy Stilwell, spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that she believed the issue resonated with voters more than many politicians realized.
"This is on the radar screens of a lot of people," she
said. "We should be talking about it more."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved.
Source
Despite sniper, gun control off political radar
Once a hot issue, now its barely a whisper
Wednesday, October 9, 2002 Posted: 2:36 PM EDT (1836 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Despite frightening sniper attacks just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol, the once hot issue of national gun control appears to be dead and buried just a few weeks before hotly contested congressional elections.
Gun control initiatives took on rare momentum after the Columbine school massacres in April 1999. Each time another attack occurred at a school, a workplace or a child care center, pro-gun control lawmakers rushed to urge new laws and anti-gun control lawmakers dug in to resist. Ultimately the anti-gun control forces prevailed.
That was then. Now, amid a series of terrifying attacks not far from the very neighborhoods in which some lawmakers live, shop and send their children to school, barely a whisper is being heard about gun control in either the House or the Senate.
Some gun control advocates interviewed this week suggested that in the long run, the hard-to-crack Maryland sniper case might spur new efforts to enact state or federal laws on "ballistic fingerprinting," which would require records of unique features of each gun.
But it will be an uphill struggle and it won't start now.
"We know the political realities and we're not going to get anything through right now," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and a long-time gun control advocate.
Boxer noted that gun control is a factor in some state elections this year, including Maryland and California.
Eventually, she predicted, the issue will reemerge on the national stage. "Sadly the momentum is on our side," she said. "Sadly because of the violence in America."
According to Robert Spitzer, a gun control expert at the State University of New York Cortland College campus: "The Republicans don't want to be seen as rabid gun-toting zealots."
"(And) many Democrats still seem to believe that the gun issue hurt them in 2000 -- including in Tennessee, Arkansas, and West Virginia," he said, referring to three states that Democrat Al Gore had not counted on losing.
But Spitzer argued that the electoral picture was actually more subtle. The National Rifle Association succeeded in squelching post-Columbine legislation and making lawmakers fear the group's power. But most of the candidates that the NRA endorsed in key 2000 Senate races actually lost, he said.
They are petrified'
New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed and son injured by a deranged shooter on a Long Island commuter train in 1993, said convincing her colleagues that the gun issue won't harm them has been "my battle since the 2000 elections."
"There are people here who certainly support gun safety issues and they are petrified to talk about it," said McCarthy, who is sponsoring a modest bipartisan bill aimed at closing gaps in the national instant background check system that has a chance of passing before Congress breaks this month.
A bill that would protect gun manufacturers from liability lawsuits was expected to go to the House floor next week but has been delayed. Sponsor Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, said it was put off because of "the heavy workload before Congress."
McCarthy and other critics of the bill suggested that House Republicans didn't want an NRA-backed bill on the floor while the region was spooked by a sniper.
An NRA spokesman was not available for comment but Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, an NRA board member, said the sniper case showed that the anti-gun forces have it all wrong.
"They have focused all their energy on handguns as the weapon of choice for criminals and said that if we can take them all off the street the world would suddenly be a safer place. Now there is a deranged person using a long gun as a weapon -- and they can't answer that any more," Craig said.
"The answer is law enforcement and it always has been," he added.
Amy Stilwell, spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that she believed the issue resonated with voters more than many politicians realized.
"This is on the radar screens of a lot of people," she
said. "We should be talking about it more."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved.
