Columbine killers also wounded the NRA
WASHINGTON — Not even the marble walls of the U.S. Senate's fortress were invulnerable to the gunfire of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
It just took a while for tone-deaf Republicans to hear the gunshots.
Actually, 24 hours.
When the two teen-age psychos shot up Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., killing a dozen students and a teacher, the country was shocked: More fatal bang-bang in an affluent suburban school? What to do?
Nothing, yawned cynics.
Oh, there'd be the usual flapdoodle over violent movies, video games, a sick culture. But hand-wringing would fade. The National Rifle Association would never allow its puppet politicians to do anything useful about guns.
Charlton "Moses" Heston, gun-lobby president, was confident. So was NRA lobbyist James Baker, who prowled Senate halls arguing, "Don't give in to knee-jerk emotions. Why pass new laws when we don't enforce old ones?"
When the NRA speaks, Congressfolk listen with their wallets. In the last election cycle, gun defenders gave $3.4 million, mostly to Republicans.
Sure, there were other voices. Some said, "Remember Littleton, do something." But the cautious warned, "Yeah, but remember Jack Brooks and Tom Foley." The once-powerful Texas congressman and top Democrat were kicked out of Washington by a vengeful NRA.
The message was etched in full-page NRA ads: "Bill Clinton and his anti-gun cronies are trying to exploit the school shootings — contact your senator."
So fear, inertia and apathy ruled the chamber Wednesday when — ho-hum — the Senate killed a proposal for background checks on firearm sales at gun shows. The vote was orchestrated by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who sits on the NRA board of directors.
Oh, well, deja vu, another NRA slam dunk. But it wasn't mere symbolism: The four guns that Harris and Klebold toted in the Littleton carnage had gun-show histories. Dems called the 4,000 yearly gun shows uncontrolled firearm bazaars. No sale.
Then a strange, almost unprecedented lightning storm hit the U.S. Senate — buyers' remorse.
"We went too far," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Craig.
"I want to change my vote," said Bob Smith, R-N.H.
"We need to rethink this," said John McCain, R-Ariz.
No accident that McCain and Smith are among Republican 2000 contenders — a field in which Liddy Dole has drawn media coverage and boos by backing gun control.
Maybe Republicans could shrug off Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.: "Gun shows with no checks will be a central issue in the 2000 election."
They could ignore Clinton, who said, "For the life of me I can't understand" the Senate vote. They could kiss off Attorney Janet Reno's fusillade, "I'm stunned after the worst school shooting in history, the Senate makes it easier for felons, fugitives and young people to get guns."
But they couldn't shut out overnight fury pouring from Senate phones and fax machines. Typically, "Didn't you people learn anything from Littleton?"
Nor could they duck polls showing 80 percent — especially women — want tougher gun laws. "Soccer moms don't understand why soccer dads need sawed-off shotguns," said GOP consultant Alex Castellanos.
Hindsight has a marvelously cleansing effect on senatorial minds. People's anger and Columbine High horror overwhelmed the NRA's lobbyists.
Oops, said the Senate on Thursday, a mistake.
Crooned NRA Senate cheerleader Craig, "I am making a clarification." So many Republicans had cold feet, he would "correct" his bill — 24-hour background checks for ALL firearm sales at gun shows.
It whizzed through, an astonishing shift. But the NRA's bad-news day wasn't over.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., after a schoolyard massacre in Stockton, in 1994 managed to ban U.S. sales of high-capacity ammo clips that enable a gunman to trigger a firestorm without reloading. But overseas clips flooded the U.S. market.
After five futile years, Feinstein was amazed when the Senate, by 59-39, closed the loophole.
Why the pols' about-face on guns? "These school shootings aren't happening in L.A., New York, Detroit and Chicago. They're happening in our well-to-do suburbs," Feinstein noted.
That's cruel reality.
For 20 years, politicians did little about guns laws while murder rates went wild in big inner cities. But the pols were rattled by school shootings in Jonesboro, Springfield, West Paducah, Littleton — towns and 'burbs where middle-class white Americans, many of them Republican, vote.
When suburbanites honked, pols did an instant U-turn. Never mind the NRA's money and clout. After Littleton, who was safe?
Even in the cloistered Senate, the guns of Harris and Klebold shook the marble walls.
(Sandy Grady is Washington columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Readers may write to him at the Knight-Ridder Washington bureau, 700 National Press Building, Washington, D.C., 20045.)
May 18, 1999 | Print this page
Copyright 2000 The Daily Camera. All rights reserved.
Any copying, redistribution, or retransmission of any
of the contents of this service without the express written
consent of The Daily Camera is expressly prohibited.
Users of this site are subject to our
User Agreement, you may also read our
Privacy Policy. Comments? Questions? Suggestions? E-mail us at webmaster@thedailycamera.com.
