May 24, 1999
Web posted at: 12:37 p.m. EDT (1637 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 24) -- The hot and controversial topic of gun control will return to the halls of Congress but the congressional debate will shift this week to the House of Representatives.

House Democrats are pushing for action on the juvenile justice bill passed by the Senate last week after bitter debate. A Democratic amendment to the bill to close the controversial gun-show loophole passed by 51-50 with the deciding vote cast by Vice President Al Gore.

The amendment requires mandatory background checks for all gun sales at gun shows and pawnshops. Senators, mindful of April's fatal shootings at a Littleton, Colorado, high school, also included a requirement for safety locks on new handguns and a ban on violent juveniles from purchasing a firearm.

The House version of a juvenile justice bill does not yet contain any of the gun controls that proved so contentious in the Senate but it is unlikely to stay that way. House Republicans are resisting Democratic attempts to work on the bill, saying their plans are for a Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter on Thursday with floor debate to follow in mid-June.

"We're going to make sure that we do this in a reasonable, rational and responsible way, and that requires us to go through the ... Judiciary Committee," said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

House Republicans are eager to let the issue cool off after it caused a public relations meltdown for their party during two volatile weeks of Senate debate.

On Saturday, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Illinois), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that his panel will hold hearings on the Senate legislation on Thursday, but that no House vote is likely until after the Memorial Day recess.

"I think the bill that the Senate passed is a good bill," Hyde said on CNN's "Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields." "I don't have any real problems with it, but we ought to hold hearings. ... It won't be more than a couple of weeks and we'll past a bill that I think will be satisfactory and the president will sign."

Democrats said the families of the victims of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado and those shot last week in Georgia deserve quicker action.

"We should not take a Memorial Day recess until we pass a proper memorial for the slain students in Littleton, Colorado, and other school gun tragedies," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat.

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay said over the weekend that he favored instant background checks for all sellers at gun shows. In a copyrighted story, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Texas Republican, a senior member of the Republican leadership who has traditionally opposed any gun control measures, made his remarks during a campaign fund-raiser for Rep. Merrill Cook (R-Utah).

The Senate bill allows the government three days to perform the background checks needed for gun sales at gun shows.

But DeLay said that any new gun restrictions should be part of a package that includes tougher disciplinary actions and more freedom for religious expression in school.

"The House is going to be a lot different than the Senate," he said. "Guns are going to be a very small part of what we do."

But President Bill Clinton is urging House Democrats to go beyond what the Senate passed and to push for additional provisions that would raise 18 to 21 the legal age for possessing and purchasing handguns, semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. He did not mention those items during his radio broadcast on Saturday in which he urged speedy action on the bill in the House.

DeLay, however, accused the president of grandstanding on the issue of gun control.

"We think that there have been people, including the president, that have been very disappointing in using these tragedies, in politicizing these tragedies, in using it to advance gun control. We think it's a bigger problem than guns," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Monday, May 24, 1999

• Reno has survived Washington so far, but China probe may be different
• Congress considering a presidential pay raise
• Gun control debate shifts to House
• Pataki endorses Bush for 2000
• On latest New York trip, first lady helps raise dollars for Lowey
• Elizabeth Dole pushes gun control
• Mfume won't run for Baltimore mayor
• Hastert is assertive but softspoken
• Without term limits, a quiet primary in Kentucky
• Offer to trade White House for academia made to Clinton
• WASHINGTON YESTERDAY: The dome rises and a feud boils
• GOP unsure how to avoid autumn showdown over budget

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