Senate Approves GOP Gun Show Restrictions

WASHINGTON -- In a squeaker of a vote, Senate Republicans on Friday passed a measure to promote background checks at gun shows, one that Democrats, preferring a more stringent proposal of their own, almost solidly opposed.

In one sense, the Senate seemed like a chamber turned upside down, with Republicans pressing for a new gun control measure and Democrats fighting vehemently against it. In reality, the Democrats, concerned about many details of the Republican plan and convinced that the political tide on gun control has turned in their favor, were determined not to let Republicans steal any credit for seeming to advocate stricter regulations for firearms.

The vote was preceded by intense bickering as members of each party accused colleagues across the aisle of striking meaningless poses and putting politics ahead of sound policy. The acrimony underscored again how potent and volatile the issue of gun control had become in the three weeks since the school shooting in Littleton, Colo.

The Republican gun show proposal passed by just one vote, 48-47, as an amendment to a juvenile-justice bill whose fate on Capitol Hill is uncertain. But the extraordinary political contortions accompanying the gun-control debate made for high drama even this early in the legislative process.

Only one Democrat, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, joined 47 Republicans in favor, while seven Republicans sided with Democrats in opposition to it. Four Democrats and one Republican were absent. Byrd's office did not return calls seeking explanation for the senator's vote.

Other Democrats immediately lambasted the measure, co-sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, as a cunningly crafted illusion.

"The Hatch-Craig amendment has more special effects than the new 'Star Wars' movie," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

But Republicans said that Democrats were intent on vilifying them. "They prefer the gun battle to doing what's right," Hatch said after the vote. "And I tell you, it's driving me crazy."

Hatch and Craig said that their measure would require all vendors at gun shows, whether professional dealers or hobbyists, to conduct background checks on prospective buyers. It augmented another amendment by Craig, passed by Republicans on Wednesday, that merely made it easier for vendors to conduct voluntary checks.

After voting both for the amendment on voluntary checks and against a stricter Democratic version, a number of moderate Republicans grew worried that the party had embarrassed itself, and they urged leaders to put forward a tougher-looking plan. But there was serious question Friday about whether the new amendment that Republicans passed was much different from the first.

Democrats looked at the dense thicket of legalese and said that it created a new category of vendor, neither professional salesman nor collector, who would be exempt from conducting background checks. Gun control advocates and Clinton administration officials concurred with that assessment.

Republicans said that Democrats were wrong. But before Friday's vote, Hatch tried to introduce a clarification that emphasized that all vendors at gun shows were obliged to conduct background checks.

Democrats rejected its introduction, saying it did not solve many other problems. For example, the amendment would eliminate the current obligation of pawn shop owners to conduct background checks on customers returning to get firearms out of hock.

It would, additionally, give licensed dealers more freedom to sell guns at shows outside the states in which they are licensed. And it would shorten, to 24 hours from three business days, the time that licensed dealers at gun shows are given to conduct background checks. Licensed dealers are already obliged to perform those checks, but other vendors are not.

Before the vote Friday morning, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Attorney General Janet Reno released a statement opposing the new amendment. President Clinton derided it as "riddled with high-caliber loopholes."

After the vote, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said: "The Republicans take a step forward and a step back, a step to the right and a step to the left. They are truly the gang who couldn't shoot straight."

But Craig said that the pawn-shop and 24-hour provisions of his amendment were simply attempts to untangle law-abiding citizens from unnecessary regulations.

He said he had written his amendment himself, but he acknowledged having submitted it for legal review to a lawyer for the National Rifle Association. Craig is on the association's board of directors.

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