Even with Virginia Tech shootings, gun control still a tough sell in U.S. Congress

WASHINGTON: In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, U.S. gun control advocates acknowledged Tuesday they still face tough odds in trying to make gun control laws stricter in a country where many interpret the Constitution as granting an absolute right to bear arms.

"It is a tough sell," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat and the House of Representatives' most ardent proponent of gun control legislation. McCarthy was elected to Congress on a gun control platform in 1996, three years after her husband was killed and her son seriously injured by a shooter on a suburban New York commuter train.

In 1999, after the Columbine High School killings in Colorado left 15 dead, including the two shooters, lawmakers unsuccessfully introduced dozens of bills to require mandatory child safety locks on new handguns, ban the sale of cheap, small caliber revolvers, increase the minimum age for gun purchases and require background checks on weapons bought at gun shows.

A month after the Columbine shootings, then Vice President Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to advance a juvenile crime bill that included gun show restrictions. But the bill died after a year of on-and-off negotiations with the House, where gun rights lawmakers held sway.

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says Americans have the right to bear arms

Gun control became an issue in the 2000 election and many political analysts say Gore, assailed by the National Rifle Association for supporting gun control, lost critical votes in rural states where voters are strong supporters of gun rights.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, who sponsored the 1994 federal assault weapons ban that Congress allowed to expire in 2004, said in a statement that she believed the killings at Virginia Tech would "re-ignite the dormant effort to pass commonsense gun regulations in this nation."

But while Democrats now control the Congress, many of its new members are gun rights supporters from rural states.

McCarthy said she is trying to promote legislation that will be acceptable to gun rights people, including a bill that would require instant background checks for gun purchases rather than making buyers wait a day or more.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/17/america/NA-GEN-US-University-Shooting-Gun-Control.php