Reinstating a ban on semiautomatic weapons isn't in the cards yet. Gun control groups are focusing on less controversial steps.

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By Brian Friel, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007

Gun control advocates had little to cheer about in recent years as Republicans ran the House and Senate. In 2004, gun control groups failed in their efforts to maintain a decade-long ban on semiautomatic weapons. They also failed to block a 2005 measure granting gun manufacturers relief from liability lawsuits. In 2006, they successfully fought limits on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that were favored by gun-rights groups.

With Democrats running Congress for the first time since 1994, gun control advocates have more friends in high places than they have had in 12 years. But they also have a new challenge: persuading Democratic leaders that tougher gun laws aren't bad politics for the party. "The 2006 elections were very good for us, for folks supporting commonsense gun measures," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "The challenge now is to help convince leadership that this is an issue that's going to help their members pick up votes in the future."

In the midterms, Helmke said, Brady Campaign-endorsed candidates defeated National Rifle Association-supported candidates 80 percent of the time, even though the NRA spent $1.7 million on losing Senate candidates. (In response, NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox points out that many of the winning Democratic candidates, including Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Jon Tester of Montana, and Jim Webb of Virginia, espoused pro-gun-rights views.) Helmke also cites newly elected Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., as an example of a Democrat who campaigned on gun control and won.

But for many Democrats, it is the 1994 and 2000 elections that come to mind when they think of gun control. Former President Clinton has said that the NRA was responsible for Democratic defeats in those elections -- for control of Congress in 1994 and for the presidency in 2000 -- based on association ads that said Democrats threatened Americans' Second Amendment right to bear arms. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who was first elected in 1996 as a gun control activist, pins the 1994 loss more on corruption-related issues. But, she says, enough Democrats think gun issues cost them the election that a major bill, such as the renewal of a ban on semiautomatic weapons, is unlikely to come to a vote, even all these years later. "Leadership is just not going to let something like that come up on the floor," McCarthy said in an interview. Neither House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., nor House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has called for gun control legislation this year. The outlook in the Senate for gun control advocates is also tempered: Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has received generally good ratings from the NRA and was a proponent of the gun manufacturers' relief bill two years ago.

Given that reality, gun control supporters are gearing up a relatively modest agenda. McCarthy, for one, is starting off with a bill that would strengthen the database used to make instant background checks on gun buyers' records. McCarthy drafted the measure with the help of Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., one of the NRA's top Democratic allies.

Similarly, the Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center, another gun control group, are urging Congress to make "trace data" -- which track a gun's history from manufacturer to seller to purchaser -- publicly available. For three years running, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., has succeeded in adding a provision to appropriations bills that limits trace-data access to law enforcement agencies investigating gun crimes. Tiahrt said his provision protected gun owners' privacy rights and prevented sensitive law enforcement information from being made public. Gun control groups countered that when that information was available, it had helped them to identify the types of guns most commonly used in crimes and the dealers most likely to sell such guns.

"The primary legislative objective of the entire gun-violence-prevention movement is removing the trace-data limits," said Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center. She noted that trace data helped policy makers target "Saturday night specials" for legislative bans, and helped them to identify the guns included in the ban on semiautomatic assault weapons. "It's just a gold mine of information for advocates trying to effectively target policy proposals."

The groups' efforts on trace data will be backed this year by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 123 mayors formed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a Democrat. The mayors' group lobbied against a bill in the 109th Congress that would have made the Tiahrt provision permanent. Starting with a meeting in Washington on January 23, the mayors are pushing for the Tiahrt provision's elimination, arguing that trace data would help their police forces reduce gun violence. "What they want to impress upon Congress is that this is not about gun control; this is about crime control," said John Feinblatt, Bloomberg's criminal-justice coordinator. "What they want to say is, the bills they encountered in the last Congress were really bills that -- there's no other way to characterize them -- they were soft on crime."

Rand said that oversight hearings on violent crime would also help policy makers get a handle on gun violence. The FBI reported increases in violent crime in 2005 and the first half of 2006. In cities with populations between 500,000 and 1 million, the homicide rate rose 8.4 percent in the first half of 2006, compared with the first half of 2005, the FBI reported in December. Overall, violent crime in the nation increased 3.7 percent over the same period, the FBI said. Gun control advocates are urging lawmakers to hold hearings looking at the causes of those increases as well as the types of guns most often used in violent crimes. Such hearings, coupled with access to trace data, could provide the foundation for a new weapons ban similar to the 1994 ban that expired two years ago. Both Helmke and Rand said that the 1994 ban was riddled with loopholes and caused problems for proponents of tougher gun laws -- and so they would push for changes.

The Brady Campaign is promoting tougher background checks at gun shows. Three moderate Republicans -- Reps. Michael Castle of Delaware, Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and Mark Kirk of Illinois -- have joined McCarthy in sponsoring a bill that would require criminal checks for buyers at gun shows. McCarthy, who prizes such bipartisan support, said she would like Congress to pass a bill banning gun sales to anyone on a terrorist watch list, a step she calls "no fly, no buy."

Advocates' hopes for more-comprehensive legislation are tempered in part by the effectiveness of the NRA in convincing both Republicans and Democrats that they don't want anti-gun votes on their records. Cox said that the NRA will oppose the mayors' trace-data proposal and the gun show bill, among other measures. "We're obviously prepared to meet any and all challenges head-on," Cox said. "The NRA team has proven to be effective both on offense and defense -- and our special teams are pretty damn good, too."

Nonetheless, Helmke said that the environment for tougher gun laws is better now, thanks to Democratic control of Congress, the mayors' campaign, and lawmakers' concerns over the rise in violent crime. "I'd like to see them start addressing the issue in a positive manner, particularly reversing some of the backward steps they've taken over the past four to six years," he said, "and then looking long range on some commonsense measures."

Gun Control Groups Key Players: Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; Mayors Against Illegal Guns; Violence Policy Center; Coalition to Stop Gun Violence On the Front Burner: Make more gun data available to police and public; toughen background checks at gun shows Sleeper Issue: "No fly, no buy" -- Brian Friel

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