WASHINGTON - Next week, local gun control
proponents from 50 different groups will gather in St. Louis to plot
their strategy against proposals to allow Missourians to carry concealed
guns.
Last year at this time, many of those same activists were gearing up for
a much different event: the Million Mom March, in which hundreds of
thousands of mothers converged on Washington on Mother's Day to rally
for tighter gun restrictions.
The new focus in St. Louis is part of a nationwide trend, in which some
gun control supporters are shifting their focus to state and local
lawmakers, rather than decision-makers in Washington. Instead of
rallying in Washington this Mother's Day, activists plan on holding
events in state capitals around the country.
The main reason is simple: with President George W. Bush in the White
House and Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, activists
say they have little hope of enacting new gun restrictions this year.
"We expect nothing" from Congress, said Stacey Newman,
co-president of the St. Louis chapter of the Million Mom March.
"The focus this year is on individual states."
Gun control lobbyists in Washington agree that the new administration
has dramatically altered the political landscape. "It's a sea
change," said Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence
Policy Center, an advocacy group. "The NRA feels like they're in
the catbird's seat right now."
The National Rifle Association's top lobbyist, James J. Baker, said that
might be overstating the situation, but he agreed that his group is in
poised for some victories this year.
"The pendulum has swung a little bit our way," Baker said.
Given the current climate, it's no wonder organizers of the Million Mom
March have decided to spend more time at home than in Washington this
year.
The group plans to hold state rallies from Honolulu to Boston next
month, and then meet with local lawmakers the following day. "Real
change begins at home, in our cities and states," says a statement
on the group's Web site.
In Missouri, Newman of the St. Louis Million Mom March said her group
had "too big a fight here" to worry about what's happening in
Washington.
Her group opposes various proposals in the Legislature that would allow
Missourians to carry concealed weapons. Two years ago, voters defeated a
similar measure in a statewide referendum.
Newman said her group planned to deliver a giant Mother's Day card,
adorned with hundreds of signatures, with a pro-gun control message to
Gov. Bob Holden.
She said the Missouri advocates were not holding a rally on Mother's Day
because they are organizing a protest for the following weekend, when
the National Rifle Association's national conference will be held in
Kansas City.
In Illinois, the Legislature is considering both gun control measures
and initiatives backed by gun rights advocates.
An Illinois House committee recently approved a concealed carry bill,
but prospects for passage are anything but certain. Gun control
proponents also suffered a setback when the committee rejected limiting
handgun sales to one per month and requiring more reports of sales by
gun dealers.
But Joe Dennison, director of state legislation for Handgun Control,
said his group was still hopeful that Illinois lawmakers might tighten
gun show background checks. Illinois activists say they are focusing
their energies on a lobbying campaign on these state initiatives and
will hold a "lobby day" next month - Mother's Day would be too
late to have an impact, they said.
Dennison said gun control supporters had had successes in other states,
such as New Mexico, which recently passed a bill to require child safety
locks be sold with all handguns.
Rand, of the Violence Policy Center, said that while the focus at the
state level was good, gun control proponents could not afford to stop
paying attention to the federal level. She said her group and others
were worried that gun rights groups would seize the moment to weaken
current gun laws.
"We're going to be on the defensive," she said.
Baker predicts stalemate in Congress
The NRA's Baker predicted that for the most part, there would be a
stalemate on gun measures in Congress. But he added that the NRA was
hoping to make the most of the current political situation by getting
some "pro-active" initiatives passed.
At the top of the NRA's list, Baker said, is a bill that would ban state
and city lawsuits against the gun industry, such as one filed by St.
Louis that is currently pending in federal court. The suits, filed by
more than two dozen municipalities across the country, seek to recoup
the cost of dealing with gun violence.
The Missouri Senate recently approved a similar bill. In the meantime,
though, city officials say they are pressing ahead with the suit.
Baker said the NRA was also working with legislators in Congress on a
laundry list of about 15 legislative measures that the NRA would like to
see enacted into law, but he declined to give specifics.
Rand said the only thing that could change the dynamic in favor of gun
control was another horrific school shooting, such as the incident at
Columbine High School in 1999.
"Unfortunately, all too often, what drives the gun control debate
are horrible tragedies like Columbine, and we really can't discount that
there might be another incident that will force the congressional
leadership to deal with the issue," Rand said.
Other gun control proponents insist that their efforts at the federal
level are alive and well.
"As Mark Twain once said, the rumors of our demise have been
greatly exaggerated," said Sarah Brady, chairwoman of Handgun
Control and wife of Jim Brady, who was shot 20 years ago today in the
assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan.
"We've got more support now than we've ever had, and we're ready to
go to work," Brady said at a news conference earlier this week,
held to mark the 20th anniversary of the shooting, which left her
husband in a wheelchair.
Several lawmakers joined the Bradys and kicked off a small flurry of
activity on gun control.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced that he would push a proposal to
hold parents criminally liable if children get access to improperly
stored guns and cause death or injury. He said he also would press to
make permanent a waiting period to give law enforcement officials
several days to conduct background checks on gun purchasers.
The waiting period, part of the Brady law passed in 1993 and named after
Jim Brady, expired in 1998, when an instant check system kicked in. But
Durbin said that some criminals and mentally disturbed people were not
caught by the instant check system.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., promised to revive last year's campaign to
close what critics call the "gun show loophole," which they
say allows people who buy firearms at gun shows to avoid background
checks.
Still, lawmakers and gun control lobbyists concede that it will be an
uphill battle to get anything through Congress and signed into law.
"The stars have to be aligned for us to have a chance," said
Durbin.
In the House, Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., said that Democrats had had
little time to think about gun control this year, because they've been
too busy fighting Bush's tax cut and budget proposals.
NATION & WORLD
Reporter Deirdre Shesgreen:
E-mail: dshesgreen@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 202-298-6880
03/30/2001 A-section