Hindsight from The New Gun Week June 1, 1999
Gun Debate Now on Broad Stage
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive EditorThe senseless act of terrorism by two teenage students in a suburban Denver high school on April 20 has triggered another far-reaching national debate about the causes of violence, a debate that has spread across every television screen, newspaper, radio station, the Internet and even over coffee-shop counters.
Much of the focus, as it was in the 1960s, is on guns. But this time there also seems a wider recognition that guns do not commit crimes by themselves. Even President Clinton has cast a wider net to include everything from parenting and schooling to the entertainment industry. Of course, he has not skipped any opportunity to advance his anti-gun agenda as well. Indeed, Clinton has used the press to browbeat the GOP during Senate debates and votes on a juvenile crime bill and its anti-gun amendments.
But in seeking answers, the public appears to be interested in a deeper discussion of American society and not just tired, old anti-gun clichés.
The search for answers may be much more difficult than the average citizen realizes, because of the complex political connections various players may have with the White House and Congress.
Many in the media have fixated on the NRA's grassroots political clout and contributions to members of both houses of Congress. But others have also acknowledged the leverage that the entertainment industry has with the Clinton-Gore Administration because of its long-standing financial support.
When Clinton announced a White House summit that would involve representatives from the entertainment industry as well as gun manufacturers, the big money anti-gunners in Hollywood balked. First, they didn't want their President accusing them of contributing to the country's moral breakdown and they certainly didn't want to be linked with pro-gun representatives.
If Clinton was really hoping to develop a national dialog at his summit, he found many of his staunchest supporters as reluctant as his political opponents. However, he pressed on and he enlisted his wife, as well as Al and Tipper Gore, to help prod others into a meeting that would look at many aspects of the problem.
One week after Charlton Heston and Wayne LaPierre spoke at the National Rifle Association's truncated annual meeting, with LaPierre indicating support for some of the same things Clinton wanted, Hillary Clinton hosted a White House gathering. Even as that media function took place, White House operatives were still feverishly trying to work out who was really invited and who would really attend the President's summit two days later.
Parents of children killed or injured by guns banded together with the first lady on May 8 in the ornate, yellow-curtained East Room of the White House, according to Associated Press.
Four parents shared stories about their children with about 300 guests, many also parents of shooting victims. They were joined by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), whose husband was shot and killed and her son critically wounded during the Long Island Railroad mass murder in 1993.
Two days later, on May 10, two separate events in Washington, DC, also were part of the response to the Littleton, CO, school shootings.
As some gun industry groups gave qualified support to some new gun-control proposals at the White House summit, the National Rifle Association held a separate press conference across town to say that the problem is not a lack of gun laws but lackadaisical law enforcement, Reuters news service reported.
Backing up the news conference with a national advertising campaign timed to coincide with the White House conference, the NRA lashed out at the Administration for seeking more controls on guns while inadequately cracking down on gun-toting criminals.
Clinton is "dusting off tired, old gun control bills" while failing to strictly enforce laws that are already on the books, LaPierre told reporters.
In full-page advertisements appearing in selected newspapers the NRA said, "More firearms legislation, like previous legislation, that is passed with no intention of enforcement is a dangerous fraud perpetrated upon the safety of the American people that must stop."
After the 15 deaths in the Columbine High in April, Clinton released a long list of gun-control proposals that included background checks at gun shows, raising the minimum age for buying a handgun from 18 to 21, restoring a waiting period for gun purchases and barring juvenile possession of semi-automatic "assault rifles."
Some gun industry trade groups have said they are not adamantly opposed to certain new laws, and some have voiced qualified support for aspects of Clinton's proposal, if satisfactorily drafted.
At its news conference and in its ads, the NRA argued against the need for new laws. It emphasized instead a zero-tolerance for guns at schools, including threats about bringing guns to school. It also wants $75 million to put in place a nationwide Project Exile, which would jail for five years any violent felon caught with a gun.
The NRA also attacked the White House for not inviting its participation in the White House summit on gun violence, which included anti-gun activists, the entertainment industry, and religious leaders.
An NRA board member, former Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Bill Brewster, attended the White House session, as did the American Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry group.
Another industry group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), withdrew, although it went to a preliminary session a week earlier. NSSF president, Robert Delfay, attended the NRA event instead and voiced displeasure that some Democrats had introduced Clinton's gun package in Congress while the White House was saying that it was seeking industry input.
Still, Delfay said his group would endorse several elements of the White House gun plan, if the measures were carefully drafted.
As President Clinton convened his meeting on youth violence and responsibility that day, two groups representing gun manufacturers said they would back limited restrictions on firearms. The American Shooting Sports Council and the National Shooting Sports Council said they will support five proposals aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of young people.
The measures include:
-Raising the age of legal possession of a handgun from 18 to 21;
-Holding parents criminally responsible for giving children access to guns; and,
-Closing a so-called loophole that lets buyers at gun shows avoid a background check-as long as the federal government doesn't keep records on purchasers, said Delfay.
Delfay also expressed industry support for a measure banning the lifetime use of guns by juvenile offenders-an initiative the NRA's LaPierre had expressed support for at the Association's annual meeting-and requiring a lock on up to 90% of firearms sold.
While the NRA press conference was in progress, Clinton and his wife, along with Al and Tipper Gore sat down in the White House East Room with about 60 participants ranging from America Online's chief executive to poet Maya Angelou. Some gun and entertainment industry people also were present while the news media was excluded.
Clinton said he wanted the session to provide the groundwork for a national campaign on reducing youth violence, and directed Surgeon General David Satcher to prepare a report on the causes of youth violence. He said the main question before the group is determining why violence is repeatedly erupting in the nation's schools.
But gun advocates and participants from the entertainment industry say they are feeling more pressure than most, because of the newly intensified debate over the availability of guns and whether violence among teen-agers is fomented by the images and language in movies, video games and song lyrics.
Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the film industry shouldn't be singled out for blame.
"I also believe that church and home and school are the three places where children learn what is right and what is wrong, and that's where they build a strong moral shield," Valenti said.
Meanwhile, some of the nation's anti-gun groups are joining with their historic enemy, gun manufacturers, to warn that the safety locks touted by President Clinton and others to fight youth violence can offer a false-even dangerous-sense of security.
"We're doing a tremendous disservice to consumers if we say, 'Just run out and get a safety lock, and you'll be safe,' " said Kristen Rand of the anti-gun Violence Policy Center.
"In some of the ways the president portrays them, he sends a wrong message. They're not childproof," agreed Delfay.
Even though both sides generally agree that gun locks address only a limited, although serious, problem, gun locks will continue to be a key issue in Congress. Democrats, backed by Clinton, are expected to continue to press for making gun locks mandatory. Even some Republicans call them acceptable.
But by the end of the summit week, Clinton had traveled to California to attend a fund-raising event and raise $1.7 million in campaign contributions. Apparently, the big money in Hollywood doesn't expect anything bad to happen to their industry in Congress.
I wish I could say that gunowners and the gun industry could feel as confident.
The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.netAlso, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com