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WASHINGTON -- Seeing a chance for a rare legislative victory, the leading gun-control group has increased lobbying spending almost fivefold over 1998 levels and recruited entertainers Susan Sarandon and Rosie O^Donnell for an advertising campaign.
Success on Capitol Hill, however, remains elusive, thanks in part to an aggressive counteroffensive by the National Rifle Association. The NRA also has spent more as it tries to stymie gun-control advocates who hope that this year^s spate of deadly school shootings had sufficiently bolstered their case.
The stakes are high and the issue remains alive despite months of gridlock on gun-control proposals that House and Senate negotiators are considering as part of juvenile-crime legislation.
GOP leaders believe agreement is near on provisions to bar minors from possessing assault weapons, ban certain large-scale ammunition clips and require "reasonable" mandatory background checks for purchases, including those at gun shows.
The possibility of legislative gains led the largest gun-control organization, Handgun Control, to spend $340,000 on lobbying between January and June, compared with $60,000 during the same period in 1998, according to reports filed with Congress.
It still did not keep pace with the NRA, the country^s best-known advocate of gun owner^s rights. The group reported that it poured $850,000 into its lobbying effort during the first six months of 1999, compared with $750,000 a year ago.
The flurry of activity stems from congressional action on gun control that took center stage after the April shooting at Columbine High School outside Denver left 15 people dead.
By one vote, the Senate passed legislation that included mandatory background checks on all firearms buyers at gun shows and required dealers to provide safety devices with all handguns. A month later, the House deleted the gun measures from the juvenile-crime bill after some Republicans argued they were too strong and some Democrats asserted they were too weak.
That has left it to a House-Senate conference to resolve the differences.
For Handgun Control, there finally is a bill that gun-control advocates can use to pressure lawmakers, spokeswoman Naomi Paiss said. Contributions also rose, and helped finance more lobbying.
"Gun control had been stymied for many years," Ms. Paiss said. "We finally got something on the floor that people understood was critically important to keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and children."
The NRA, acknowledging the important fight, hired two new outside lobbying firms to buttress the efforts of the group^s staff, including one headed by Randall Scheunemann, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
"If I could have found 15 more people who were particularly effective, I would have hired them too," said James Baker, the NRA^s chief lobbyist.
Last month, the NRA urged its members to contact lawmakers involved in the gun-control talks as well as their own members of Congress. "It is critical that you call ... to ensure that no anti-gun language is included in the final conference committee^s ^compromise^ legislation," the NRA said in a fax message.
Handgun Control spent $100,000 on television ads last month in Washington, D.C., and 10 congressional districts. They including those represented by Reps. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn. and Anne Northup, R-Ky., which both went President Clinton in 1992 and 1996; conservative Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.; and Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., chairman of the House Judiciary crime subcommittee.
Performers O^Donnell and Sarandon each narrated a commercial, which included scenes of shootings at Columbine and a Jewish community center in Los Angeles in August, as well as the 1998 killings of five people in Jonesboro, Ark., shot as they left school during a fire alarm.
"Enough is enough. No more excuses," O^Donnell and Sarandon said in separate ads. "Call Congress and tell them to close the loopholes that give children and criminals easy access to firearms."
The NRA quickly answered with its own $50,000 ad campaign, citing a study that found the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is sending fewer gun-related cases to federal prosecutors.
"We don^t need tougher gun laws," the narrator says in a message that mirrors what NRA lobbyists carry to Capitol Hill. "We need to get tougher on violent criminals."
"We think the prosecution is a very salient point," Baker said. "It^s one we^re trying to put across in every venue possible."
Uploaded: 10/19/1999
Uploaded: 10/19/1999