WASHINGTON — Citing what he called "a sea change in public attitude" on gun violence, President Clinton declared Wednesday that "it's time to stand up" to the gun lobby and consider all options--including federal standards for weapons registration and wider police authority to stop and search persons suspected of carrying illegal firearms.
"It has gotten so serious," he said, referring to Tuesday's Long Island commuter train shootings and other recent violence, "that we should consider a lot of things that were rejected in the past."
Interviewed by reporters at a luncheon session at Blair House, the President said he wants to study a wide range of options before committing himself to specific proposals. But pressed on whether he would support greater "stop and frisk" authority for police, he said he "wouldn't take that off the table."
"There has been a sea change in public attitude," Clinton said. "I am convinced that most Americans now understand how profoundly important these crime and violence issues are, and how it's time to face them and how it has nothing to do . . . with the culture of hunting and sportsmanship in which I was raised, myself."
Meanwhile, Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)--chief House sponsor of the recently enacted Brady law, which provides a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases--announced that he will introduce a new and tougher package of restrictions when Congress returns in January.
The package is backed by former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady, who was wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan; his wife, Sarah, and Handgun Control Inc., the advocacy group they head. It would require handgun buyers to submit to a fingerprint check, take safety training and undergo a seven-day "cooling off period" before purchase.
Brady, for whom the Brady law is named, has been confined to a wheelchair since 1981.
With public pressure for more controls mounting, a Los Angeles Times poll released Wednesday found that, since enactment of the Brady measure, 64% of Americans still think that gun control laws are not strong enough, whereas only 7% say they are too strong and 24% find them adequate.
In another development, the American Medical Assn., many of whose members have long opposed gun control, adopted a sweeping new policy statement favoring tighter curbs on the sale and ownership of firearms.
The statement, adopted by the AMA's 435-member House of Delegates at a meeting in New Orleans, reflects a growing conviction among physicians that gun violence has become one of the nation's biggest public health problems. Among other things, the AMA endorsed a ban on possession and use of firearms by unsupervised youths under 18, higher licensing fees for firearms dealers and higher taxes on guns and ammunition.
At the Blair House luncheon, Clinton told reporters that the Long Island shootings were "a good argument" for congressional approval of an amendment to the crime bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would restrict automatic and semiautomatic weapons.
Her proposal, he said, would have prevented the gunman's 9-millimeter weapon from having a 15-shot clip, which Clinton said allowed him to fire with such rapidity that most people on the train were "paralyzed" into inaction. The gunman managed to reload once and begin firing again before several passengers overpowered him.
Clinton said there had been "a substantial and somewhat sudden" change of attitude on gun control in Congress, which had resisted imposing tougher restrictions until this year.
An interesting test of how substantial the change has been, he said, will be whether the House accepts the Feinstein amendment when it takes up the crime bill early next year. "The House has generally been more reluctant on these things," he said.
The Feinstein proposal, which got more support than Clinton had expected, passed the Senate by a vote of 56 to 43. The Senate crime bill, however, now must be reconciled with the House version before final legislation is approved.
But members of the NRA have promised a tough fight against gun-control measures. T.J. Johnston, an NRA board member from Orange County, said elected officials such as Clinton and Feinstein "are looking for a scapegoat for their own incompetence." He said the President's campaign against the gun ownership group would only "harden our resolve."
Johnston said the New York railroad shooting wouldn't have claimed nearly as many victims if the law allowed common citizens to carry concealed weapons. He argued: "If any citizen had been able to carry a firearm on that train, the tragedy would have stopped immediately." The gunman "knew he would have the only gun on that train--and he killed with impunity."
Johnston also noted that in California, which has had a ban on assault weapons for three years and a 15-day waiting period on the purchase of weapons since 1991, has a murder rate 25% above the national average.
