It’s really not about guns. And it’s not only Gary Bauer and Dan Quayle who say so. In their post-Littleton speeches, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have made the same point, indirectly but unmistakably. When they list cures for what ails America, they get to gun control last. No doubt White House pollsters have cautioned them to be restrained in promoting anti-gun legislation now. So even while exulting last week over his tie-breaking Senate vote to crack down on gun shows, Gore was careful to cite — and cite first — more urgent needs such as “better parenting” and “more discipline in schools” and “more self-restraint in the media.”
And yet Washington pretends the solution to Littleton and to the shooting last week at a Conyers, Georgia, high school can be reduced to one thing: more gun control. In fact, the measures passed by the Senate, if the House goes along, would have almost no effect. Child locks on guns? They’d have to be purchased along with a gun, but actually attaching them to the gun is voluntary. And any teenager, particularly determined ones like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, would be able to saw through such locks in minutes. Background checks stretching over three days at gun shows? This would cause more private gun sales to go underground, denying authorities some of what they know now about gun trafficking.
So who’s to blame for allowing the No. 1 lesson of Littleton to be defined in Washington as gun control? In order of culpability, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, majority leader Trent Lott, and Republican senators John McCain and Gordon Smith. Daschle’s role was cynical in the extreme. After Littleton, he declared that no new gun laws were needed. Then, only days later, he insisted Democrats would disrupt the Senate and block all legislation until there was action on gun control. Daschle gambled that even if Democrats looked exploitative, Republicans would be forced to defy anti-gun sentiment in the country and look even worse. He won the gamble.
Lott should have called Daschle’s bluff. Indeed, a number of Republican senators urged him to do exactly that. Lott could have explained the Senate had more urgent business. But having already slated the juvenile justice bill for the Senate floor, Lott was wary of postponing it past Memorial Day, when cooler heads might prevail. He’s obsessive about sticking to the schedule, and so he did. This allowed the juvenile justice bill to be the vehicle for gun control — and for GOP humiliation.
In spite of Lott’s capitulation, Republicans still might have disposed of gun control in one day and averted embarrassment. A tantrum by McCain and Smith prevented this. The day after the Senate voted for the Republican position of voluntary background checks at gun shows, and when the legislative battle seemed resolved, at least for the time being, the two senators pointed alarmingly to newspaper headlines about GOP connivance in keeping “loopholes” in the gun laws. Calling this a disaster for Republicans, they said background checks should be made mandatory. The next day, the Senate reversed itself and adopted this position — the Democratic position all along. But Democrats, sensing Republican weakness, now demanded more. They pointed to more “loopholes,” the press dutifully played these up, the debate on guns dragged on, and Republicans suffered. And on the key vote, they lost, with Al Gore casting the deciding vote and gloating about it on national TV afterwards.
Some Republicans, Lott included, acted surprised that Democrats would be so cynical and partisan. But these were the same Democratic senators who, for cynical and partisan reasons, had rushed to Clinton’s defense in the impeachment struggle. Other Republicans, like McCain and Smith, were shocked the media would strongly take the side of Democratic gun control advocates. But this shouldn’t have startled anyone. The Washington press corps has been credulous about the merits of gun control forever.
There’s a message for Republicans in their missteps over the gun issue. After being in the majority for nearly five years, they still haven’t figured out the politics of running Congress. They should take a break, study the George Mitchell years during the Bush presidency, and learn how to play hardball.
Fred Barnes, for the Editors
