Editorial: Impasse on guns may end

Friday, May 28, 1999 | 10:50 a.m.

Still, if a political pundit would have predicted even two months ago -- prior to the massacre in Littleton, Colo. -- that the GOP leadership in the House would have supported any legislation at odds with the National Rifle Association, he would have been laughed out of the room. After all, the NRA's lobbyists have been able to have their way with the GOP for years.

Usually the House has been viewed as more resistant to gun control measures than the Senate, so the fact that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., wants to improve upon the upper chamber's limits is even more startling. For instance, Hastert said he will support legislation that would raise the minimum age for someone to buy a handgun from 18 to 21. There are some trouble spots on the horizon, though, as some House Republicans want to weaken the mandatory background check at gun shows. The Senate version gives the gun-show vendor three days to complete the check, while some in the House want this limited to just 24 hours.

Some Democrats also are upset that the earliest a vote may be held on gun control legislation is mid-June, but this shouldn't be too shocking. A trademark of GOP leadership in recent years has been its glacial movement in debating important issues. For instance, the earliest Hastert will schedule a vote on campaign finance reform is late September. So a vote in June on gun control legislation is, relatively speaking, lightning fast for the House.

The key now is for the Republican leadership to resist the demands of the NRA's influential lobbyists, who surely will try to strong-arm House members the same way they tried with senators. "(Democrats are) going to find out that nothing's changed," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., told the Associated Press last week, referring to the gun lobby's clout. "The NRA has not lost its influence."

Lott's assessment isn't entirely accurate. The gun lobby did suffer a significant setback, which shattered the belief that the NRA was invincible. Yet in some respects, too, Lott is right. While a handful of Republicans stood up to the gun lobby, the reality is that if it wasn't for Vice President Al Gore's vote, breaking the 50-50 tie, the gun control legislation would have died.

For the moment, at least, it appears Lott's counterparts in the House are listening to the public. House Republicans should move forward expeditiously and ignore the NRA's siren song, passing legislation that will close the deadly loopholes that exist in current gun laws.