Word: controller
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Debates in Washington about gun violence have become as predictable as the school shootings that set them off. Democrats call for more gun-control legislation; Republicans rage against the Clinton Administration's allegedly poor enforcement of existing laws. Both sides accuse the other of trying to score political points. With each new round, the voices get shriller. Nothing gets done...
...last week even jaded watchers of Washington's spit-and-counterspit noticed that a dollop of peace was settling over the nation. New York Governor George Pataki, a Republican, announced a broad set of gun-control reforms that include a plan to identify guns easily by keeping a record of each weapon's unique characteristics. On Friday, Smith & Wesson, the largest U.S. gun manufacturer, agreed to provide safety locks with its handguns and make its guns child resistant within a year. "We can get so much done when we find the courage to find common ground," said a triumphant President...
There was a moment last week, though, when Washington seemed to be descending into an uglier version of its usual gun-control warfare. Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A's executive vice president, tore into Clinton by charging that he is "willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda." If that weren't inflammatory enough, LaPierre drove home his point in a separate interview by accusing the President of having "blood on his hands" for the death of a former Northwestern University basketball coach whose murderer slipped through existing gun-control laws. In the background of this...
...Bush's Texas record may bedevil him as he tries to reach for moderates and independents who approve of some gun control. In 1995 he touted the signing of a law that allowed Texans to carry concealed handguns. That Bush welcomed top N.R.A officials to the signing ceremony will not escape Democratic operatives, nor will stories of guns in Texas churches and metal detectors installed in amusement parks under Bush's tenure. Bush also made it harder for localities to sue gun manufacturers. He said the measure curbed frivolous lawsuits. Opponents called it the "N.R.A protection act" and noted that...
Congress is also not in a hurry to reconcile the House and Senate versions of last year's gun provisions in the juvenile-justice crime bill. Both parties have internal divisions on the gun issue. There are plenty of pro-N.R.A Democrats, mostly from Southern states, and gun-controlling Republicans in Northern pockets. Even G.O.P. House leaders are split. Speaker Dennis Hastert and Conference Chair J.C. Watts favor movement toward reform, while majority whip Tom DeLay and majority leader Dick Armey stay hostile to any such legislation. Some Democrats may want the gun-control issue more than they want...