MMM on the rocks!
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/11/weekinreview/11DAO.html?pagewanted=print
March 11, 2001
New Gun Control Politics: A Whimper, Not a Bang
By JAMES DAO
ASHINGTON -- In the days following shootings at schools in California and Pennsylvania last
week, the new reality of gun control politics became starkly clear. Unlike in 1999, when
Democrats
reacted almost immediately to the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado with
demands for tough
new gun restrictions, there were few calls to action. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York,
one of
Washington's most aggressive gun control proponents, simply suggested a voluntary "code of
ethics" for
gun owners and their families.
It was a strikingly muted response from a movement that, less than a year ago, thought it had
finally reached
the gates of political power. "You are the future now," declared Sarah Brady of Handgun
Control, Inc., to
the hundreds of thousands at the Million Mom March. "We must either change the minds of
lawmakers on
these issues or, for God's sake, this November let's change the lawmakers."
But the laws didn't change, and neither did many of the lawmakers. Instead, a strongly anti-gun
control
governor was elected president. The euphoria of last year's march is a distant memory (one of
its offshoots,
the Million Mom organization, laid off 30 of its 35 employees on Friday) and the gun control
movement,
despite far-ranging efforts to match the National Rifle Association in raw political power, seems
to have
fallen farther behind.
"I don't think views have changed in the Democratic Party on this issue," said Laura Nichols,
spokeswoman for Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the minority leader. "But the
political
reality has changed dramatically."
What happened? Obviously, the election of President Bush, a long-time ally of the N.R.A., put a
towering
obstacle to gun control legislation in the White House. As governor of Texas, he signed laws
making it
legal to carry concealed weapons and difficult for cities to sue gun manufacturers.
But many centrist and conservative Democrats have also concluded that gun control has
become their
party's albatross, costing it crucial votes among white, male, rural voters in key states across
the South and
Midwest. And their concerns have touched off a roiling debate within the party over whether to
play down
or even discard the issue.
"Gun control," lamented Steve Cobble, director of Campaign for a Progressive Future, a liberal
political
action committee, "has become the shorthand for why Democrats don't do well."
Even President Clinton, a staunch advocate of gun control, offered what for gun control
advocates was
surely a dispiriting post-election assessment of the rifle association's strength. "They probably
had more to
do than anyone else in the fact we didn't win the House this time, and they hurt Al Gore," he
said.
Not surprisingly, the rifle association has been taking major credit for electing Mr. Bush. "With a
new
presidential administration in our nation's capital, we'll be actively working to root out gun-hating
bureaucrats deep in the heart of the federal government, especially in the Treasury and Justice
departments," a recent N.R.A. fundraising letter says.
The N.R.A. certainly had its successes, pouring enough money into major races to help prevent
Democrats
from retaking control of the House. And it claims, and many Democrats agree, that gun control
was the
factor that put three swing states — West Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee — into George W.
Bush's
column.
Yet there is ample evidence that the rifle association was less successful in last year's election
than its
supporters claim, despite far outspending its opponents. Of the seven Senate races where the
N.R.A. spent
the most money, five of its candidates lost, including Spencer Abraham in Michigan, John D.
Ashcroft in
Missouri, Rod Grams in Minnesota, Bill McCollum in Florida and Slade Gorton in Washington,
according
to a Democratic analysis. All five were N.R.A. allies and all were replaced by advocates of gun
control.
In Colorado and Oregon, ballot measures to require buyers to undergo a background check
before making
purchases at gun shows passed overwhelmingly, though the N.R.A. spent $1.7 million trying to
kill them.
And while the rifle association devoted significant resources — including the time of its
president,
Charlton Heston — to beating Mr. Gore in Pennsylvania and Michigan, the vice president won
both states.
"The N.R.A. definitely has won the perception war," Mr. Cobble asserted. "But they lost the
election."
Polls show that a majority of Americans continue to support gun control. In January, 59 percent
of the
respondents in an ABC News/Washington Post survey said they favored stricter gun control
laws. But that
support had slipped from 67 percent in a poll taken right after the Columbine shootings.
The Democrats remain skittish, even after a 15- year-old boy was charged with killing two
classmates and
wounding 13 other people at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., last week and an
eighth-grade girl was
charged with wounding a schoolmate at Bishop Neumann High School near Williamsport, Pa.
Accepted wisdom in Washington holds that opponents of gun control are the most motivated
single-issue
voting bloc in the country. And the 4 million member rifle association remains years ahead of its
rivals in
the techniques of mobilizing those voters. "Until we're as organized as the N.R.A., we're not
going to get
anything done," said Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat who is a leading
gun
control proponent.
It is far from clear that the movement is making strides toward building the kind of national
network of
lobbyists, political operatives and organizers that the rifle association has in every state. The
Million Mom
March, which turned into a gun-control organization based in San Francisco, tried to focus on
state
legislatures, opening 230 chapters in 46 states. But it grew too fast to pay for all those efforts.
""We're 10 months old," said Andrew McGuire, the group's executive director, just before he
was laid off.
"The N.R.A. is over 100 years old."
Ideological shifts among some gun control groups also threaten to fracture the movement. Mr.
Schumer and
other gun control proponents on Capitol Hill have joined with groups like Americans for Gun
Safety in
calling for a less confrontational, more bipartisan — and perhaps more incremental —
approach. "Both
parties, and certainly Democrats, are looking for a new approach to the issue to break the
polarization,"
said Jonathan Cowan, president of Americans for Gun Safety. "It's time for a third way."
Mr. Cowan, like Mr. Schumer, says the new strategy is dictated by the hard reality of a
Republican White
House. Handgun Control is discussing changing its name to something that sounds less
threatening to
law-abiding gun owners.
Some gun control advocates demur. "Everyone thinks we can get to this middle ground, but you
can't," said
Joe Sudbay, policy director of the Violence Policy Center. "The N.R.A. will never find a middle
ground
with us. We have to beat them at their own game."
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I AM the NRA, and damned proud of it!
Matey