May 20, 1999
Web posted at: 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 20) -- Amid strong partisan sniping, the Senate debate on gun control amendments that began last week resumes Thursday and is expected to lead to a series of votes throughout the day.

The Republican majority has already offered concessions that would place further restrictions on gun sales, but vows to give no more ground beyond that.

Democrats call the GOP compromise a victory over the gun lobby.

"There may not be much difference between Democrats and Republicans anymore," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, of South Dakota, said Wednesday.

Republicans fiercely disagreed, saying their reversal on requiring background checks at gun shows and voting to require trigger locks with handgun sales weren't big concessions at all.

Senator voted to require safety locks or secured container to be sold with every handgun

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the National Rifle Association board member who had appeared to be driving the debate away from gun control last week until a half-dozen of his GOP colleagues objected, insisted Wednesday that pro-gun interests had not been defeated.

"I haven't lost," he said with a smile, wagging his forefinger in the air. "It's not over yet."

Throughout the debate, the Senate's tradition of amiability is being overtaken by hard feelings.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, complained bitterly about the Democrats. "They really hurt themselves," he told CNN. "They're going to pay."

Background checks at gun shows

Republicans pushed the most controversial gun-related measures to the end of the debate.

A draft amendment circulated by the GOP and expected to be taken up on Thursday calls for background checks on all purchasers at gun shows, including transactions exempted in the proposal that Republicans muscled through the Senate last week.

In addition, the proposal would require a mandatory background check for anyone seeking to reclaim their own weapon at a pawnshop.

The amendment negates a measure by Craig that passed last week by one vote, but which then drew objections from rank-and-file GOP senators.

Despite the concessions, administration officials prepared a long list of additional issues that the Republicans didn't address, saying the GOP hadn't gone far enough to stop some criminals from obtaining weapons.

"They don't get it," Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, said of Republicans. "The public gets it."

Democratic proposals

While making the latest in a series of retreats, Republicans indicated they were drawing the line. GOP aides said the latest amendment had been drafted in a meeting with top Senate Republicans on Wednesday.

The GOP aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said party leaders hoped that passage of their proposal would persuade enough wavering Republicans to help kill a stronger set of provisions advanced by Democrats.

The latest Democratic amendment would remove some of the government record keeping and other red tape proposed in connection with gun show purchases. But it also would give the government three days to conduct a background check -- rather than 24 hours proposed by Republicans.

Democrats also want to wait 90 days before expunging background check records in cases where the purchases are approved. The GOP wants immediate destruction of all records.

If adopted, the gun control amendments would become part of a measure that aims at curbing juvenile violence, an issue that gained new momentum after last month's school shootings in Littleton, Colorado.

Thursday, May 20, 1999

• Senate passes juvenile crime bill
• Transcript: Senate Democrats, Gore celebrate 'gun-show loophole' vote
• Roll call on gun background checks
• Clinton praises Columbine students for keeping faith
• Senators pass $15 billion spending bill for Kosovo, storm victims, farmers
• Report: China benefited from stolen nuclear secrets
• Congress considers how to keep kids from Web's dark side
• House vote sends missile defense bill to president
• Mrs. Dole logs on for Web site chat
• Nebraska Legislature passes nation's first moratorium on executions
• President renominates Shelton as Joint Chiefs chairman
• House committee to schedule Social Security hearings
• Private school tax breaks measure clears Senate panel
• Clinton education plan denounced
• Alexander keeps going despite polls
• Forbes' New Hampshire campaign manager resigns
• Brother of presidential candidate sought by police

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