Gun Control Debate

Just another Sunday afternoon in paradise. Until the shots rang out, that is. This time the shooting range was a nice-looking apartment complex on Harbor Boulevard just south of Edinger Avenue. This time the body count was two dead: a middle-aged woman routed from her apartment by an angry former boyfriend, who showed up armed and dangerous.

The U.S. Senate has not conducted any official business this week, so the American people have been at least temporarily protected from its stultifying refusal to represent them well. But the senators will eventually return - and will resume blocking judicial nominees, converting budget disagreements into crises and preventing the enactment of even the most paltry gun restrictions favored by the overwhelming majority of Americans and the clear majority of the Senate itself. This is not the first time in its history that the Senate, by virtue of its rules, has become an impediment to the popular will.

WASHINGTON - The massacre of 26 children and adults at a school in western Connecticut may break the logjam in Congress on long-stalled gun-control legislation, although some longtime opponents said they plan to fight any new measures, lawmakers and analysts said Sunday. “I think we could be at a tipping point can get something done,” Sen. Chuck E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on CBS's "Face the Nation," noting that there had been several mass shootings this year alone. “The public will not accept as a new normal one of these incidents every month” Schumer called for restoring the ban on assault-style weapons, limiting the number of bullets in ammunition clips and making it harder for “mentally unstable” individuals to obtain firearms.

The news is that a semi-automatic rifle belonging to the head of Utah's biggest gun lobby was reported stolen. But that's not the whole story. First of all, there's delicious irony to the fact that a fellow who makes a living arguing that people need guns to protect themselves from bad guys has now provided a very powerful gun to a bad guy. This highlights one of the often-overlooked aspects of the gun control debate: Guns don't just magically appear in the hands of baddies.

As President Clinton appealed from Europe for the House to reverse course and impose tougher controls on gun show sales, a leading House Republican accused the Democrats of playing politics with the issue. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) blamed Democrats for defeating gun show legislation even though Republicans agreed to some controls. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.

Re "Gun Panel Hears With an Ear Shut," Commentary, Aug. 31: John R. Lott Jr. makes a huge point of allying political opportunism to gun-control laws, but he is careful to represent only one point of view. What I would really like Lott to address is gun-control registration and the political reasons for not having it. Registration is the third rail of this argument and he knows it; registration of guns would provide the control most people could accept, but due to the political activism of pro-gun groups, it cannot be achieved.

With election-year politics percolating just below the surface, the California Legislature on Monday convened its 2000 session as Democratic lawmakers moved aggressively on measures to register handguns and license owners. The initial legislative test is likely to occur next week when the Assembly Public Safety Committee brings up a licensing proposal (AB 1607) by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco).

The U.S. Senate has not conducted any official business this week, so the American people have been at least temporarily protected from its stultifying refusal to represent them well. But the senators will eventually return - and will resume blocking judicial nominees, converting budget disagreements into crises and preventing the enactment of even the most paltry gun restrictions favored by the overwhelming majority of Americans and the clear majority of the Senate itself. This is not the first time in its history that the Senate, by virtue of its rules, has become an impediment to the popular will.

I am amused that an article about drug raids only shows a picture of confiscated guns--but no drugs ("23 Arrests Made in Series of Drug Task Force Raids," Aug. 22). It would be an interesting test case for the gun control debate if The Times were to publish the counts of how many of the confiscated guns were owned in compliance with existing gun laws. I bet the answer is zero. Until drug dealers are so afraid of gun laws that they comply, even though they are in other illegal pursuits, then gun laws only serve to deny guns to people who are basically honest, because the penalty enhancements for gun possession during a crime are a joke compared to the other activities and money involved.

I would like to correct an error made by Luis Tolley (of Handgun Control) in his letter (Nov. 3). In this letter he falsely claimed that Florida State University professor Gary Kleck's estimate that "Americans use handguns for self-defense about 645,000 times a year" was based on a single poll of 40 gun owners. In fact, Kleck's estimate was derived from three independent national surveys and corroborated by several other polls. Hundred of respondents across the United States were interviewed in each of these surveys.

WASHINGTON - The fate of gun control proposals in Congress this year may depend on who is more potent: Michael R. Bloomberg the billionaire or Michael R. Bloomberg the boogeyman. With signs that momentum for stiffer gun laws has begun to flag on Capitol Hill, the White House and gun control proponents are increasingly turning to the mogul mayor of New York to carry the fight into key congressional districts. He has bankrolled a high-profile campaign to counter the political might of the National Rifle Assn.

Letters reacting to the search for Christoper Jordan Dorner , the disgruntled former Los Angeles Police Department officer suspected of a double homicide and the shooting three police officers, are finding their way into The Times' mailbag. Surprisingly, only one of those letters discusses the manhunt for Dorner, and the rest connect the shootings to the hot-button issue of the last few months: gun control. Readers responded likewise immediately after 26 people were shot, including 20 children, in Newtown, Conn.

WASHINGTON -- There was little common ground between gun-control advocates and opponents at the first congressional hearing on guns since the massacre of children and teachers at Newtown, Conn.  “This is such a hard debate because people have such fixed positions,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said, underscoring the entrenchment on display during the hearing put together to prevent future gun violence. Headlined by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband, Mark Kelly, and National Rifle Assn.

WASHINGTON - The massacre of 26 children and adults at a school in western Connecticut may break the logjam in Congress on long-stalled gun-control legislation, although some longtime opponents said they plan to fight any new measures, lawmakers and analysts said Sunday. “I think we could be at a tipping point can get something done,” Sen. Chuck E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on CBS's "Face the Nation," noting that there had been several mass shootings this year alone. “The public will not accept as a new normal one of these incidents every month” Schumer called for restoring the ban on assault-style weapons, limiting the number of bullets in ammunition clips and making it harder for “mentally unstable” individuals to obtain firearms.

Today's quiz: Who are the greater fools, gun-rights enthusiasts strolling into Starbucks outlets with firearms strapped to their waists in order to assert their right to openly carry weapons, or gun-control advocates protesting against Starbucks for not going all Gary Cooper on these postmodern cowboy wannabes and tossing them out of its coffee-saloon doors? For us, it's a close call. The recent commotion over "open carry," one of the more obscure issues in the gun-control debate, shows that common sense is uncommon on either side.

Monday's deadly rampage at Virginia Tech sparked a largely one-sided response in the long-running debate over guns. Gun control advocates said the shootings pointed to the need for tougher laws, while supporters of gun rights generally kept their heads down. And leaders of both major political parties expressed sympathy for victims and their families, while avoiding comment on gun control.

I read with amazement Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks' claim ("There Must Be Outrage Over These Killer Weapons," Commentary, Aug. 13) that compared to the 57,000 U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam, "from 1987 to 1997, nearly four times as many people (217,853)--mostly children--have been murdered on the streets of our cities." The claim that most of our nation's murder victims are children is completely and utterly false. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, the nation's official source of data on murder, in 1997, 87% of murder victims in the United States were 18 years of age or older.

The news is that a semi-automatic rifle belonging to the head of Utah's biggest gun lobby was reported stolen. But that's not the whole story. First of all, there's delicious irony to the fact that a fellow who makes a living arguing that people need guns to protect themselves from bad guys has now provided a very powerful gun to a bad guy. This highlights one of the often-overlooked aspects of the gun control debate: Guns don't just magically appear in the hands of baddies.

Re "Gun Panel Hears With an Ear Shut," Commentary, Aug. 31: John R. Lott Jr. makes a huge point of allying political opportunism to gun-control laws, but he is careful to represent only one point of view. What I would really like Lott to address is gun-control registration and the political reasons for not having it. Registration is the third rail of this argument and he knows it; registration of guns would provide the control most people could accept, but due to the political activism of pro-gun groups, it cannot be achieved.

I am amused that an article about drug raids only shows a picture of confiscated guns--but no drugs ("23 Arrests Made in Series of Drug Task Force Raids," Aug. 22). It would be an interesting test case for the gun control debate if The Times were to publish the counts of how many of the confiscated guns were owned in compliance with existing gun laws. I bet the answer is zero. Until drug dealers are so afraid of gun laws that they comply, even though they are in other illegal pursuits, then gun laws only serve to deny guns to people who are basically honest, because the penalty enhancements for gun possession during a crime are a joke compared to the other activities and money involved.