Six months after the shooting at Columbine High School, Congress has not passed any significant gun control legislation and isn't likely to this year, several senators say. Despite President Clinton's visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday to push for gun control at an anti-violence rally of high school students, the outlook remains bleak. A House-Senate conference committee considering gun issues has been deadlocked for two months, with little sign of compromise. Lawmakers are too divided on the emotional issue of background checks at gun shows to break an impasse and pollsters say gun control isn't among the issues voters care most about.
People know where the votes are.
There's no use beating a dead horse. Assistant Senate Republican leader Don Nickles of Oklahoma said he hopes the House-Senate conference committee can still salvage a juvenile justice bill that includes the Senate's version of a gun bill. Sen. Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican who resigned from the party and now is running as an independent, said he's pleased the gun bill is running into so much difficulty in the conference. The gun bill's current difficulties are in sharp contrast to attitudes earlier this year, when legislation regulating gun show sales sped through the Senate in the wake of the shootings April 20 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., which left 15 dead. Gun control groups seized on the school shootings to push Congress to close a loophole that allows people to buy at gun shows without undergoing the background checks that are required when purchasing from a gun dealer.