Chinese School - Reid warns against rush on gun control

WORLD / America

Reid warns against rush on gun control

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-18 07:48

WASHINGTON - After the worst mass shooting in US history, Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a "rush to judgment" on
stricter gun control. A leading House supporter of restrictions on
firearms conceded passage of legislation would be difficult.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. gestures during a news
conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 16, 2007. [AP]

"I think we ought to be thinking about the families and the victims and
not speculate about future legislative battles that might lie ahead,"
said Reid, a view expressed by other Democratic leaders the day after the
shootings that left 33 dead on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Democrats traditionally have been in the forefront of efforts to pass gun
control legislation, but there is a widespread perception among political
strategists that the issue has been a loser in recent campaigns. It was
notably absent from the agenda Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
unveiled earlier this year when the party took control of the House and
Senate for the first time in more than a decade.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, a few Democrats renewed the
call for gun control legislation, and more are expected to join them.

"I believe this will reignite the dormant effort to pass commonsense gun
regulations in this nation," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California
Democrat who was a leader in the failed drive to renew a ban on certain
types of assault weapons that expired in 2004.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was one of very few lawmakers to defer
pushing for gun control in the early hours after the shootings. "There
will be time to debate the steps needed to avert such tragedies," he said
on Monday, "but today, our thoughts and prayers go to their families."

By coincidence, Kennedy and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., are scheduled
to attend a demonstration Friday at a firing range used by US Capitol
Police to draw attention to microstamping, a procedure by which serial
numbers are placed on ammunition casings. The goal is to allow police and
other investigators to quickly track ammunition to the gun that fired it.

The two lawmakers support legislation to require microstamping for all
guns manufactured after 2009, and aides to both said they planned to go
ahead with the demonstration.

Overall, though, said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., "It is a tough sell"
to pass gun control legislation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., held a
brief meeting on the subject to discuss possible legislation, but there
was no apparent eagerness by Reid, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer,
D-Md., or her to predict Democrats would lead a drive to toughen existing
laws.

One senior Democrat, Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, said gun rights
advocates are simply too influential to allow a tightening of gun control
laws. "It's a regional thing, it's a cultural thing," Rangel said,
arguing that even in areas where 85 percent of the people support more
restrictions, the 15 percent minority is far more active and outspoken.

Less than a month ago, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders abruptly
pulled legislation to give the District of Columbia voting representation
in the House. Republicans were using the issue to try to force a vote on
repeal of the capital's handgun ban, and Democrats feared it would pass.

Hoyer told reporters he thought and hoped the shootings at Virginia Tech
would make it harder for Republicans to prevail when the voting rights
bill returns to the House floor later this week.

He refused to be drawn into a discussion of the longer-term political
consequences of the shooting, saying, "All I am saying is there will be a
debate. I am not going to enter into the debate today."

Not all lawmakers were as reticent.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, one of Congress' most persistent advocates of
gun rights, noted that the student who police say was the shooter at
Virginia Tech had brought a weapon onto campus in violation of
restrictions. He said he doubted a law could be passed that would protect
"any of us when somebody who is mentally deranged decides to do this."

President Bush said in an interview with ABC News said he expects a
debate on gun policy, but now is not the time.

"I think when a guy walks in and shoots 32 people it's going to cause
there to be a lot of policy debate," he said. "Now is not the time to do
the debate until we're actually certain about what happened. And after we
help people get over their grieving. But yeah I think there's going to be
a lot of discussion."

One law enforcement official has said that the gunman's backpack
contained a receipt for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. The
gunman held a green card, meaning he was a legal, permanent resident,
federal officials said. That meant he was eligible to buy a handgun
unless he had been convicted of a felony.

Democrats have grown less supportive of gun control legislation as a
party in the past decade.

After the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, then-Vice
President Al Gore cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate on legislation
to reduce the availability of certain firearms. He and other gun control
advocates claimed victory, but many strategists believe the vote hurt him
in the 2000 presidential election.

Gun control tends to win favor among suburban voters, but it often stirs
opposition in less heavily populated areas

So far this year, there has been little evidence that Democrats feel
otherwise after winning control of the House by picking up seats last
fall in parts of Indiana, Ohio, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere where
hunting is popular.

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