Democrats shunning gun control

Democrats appear to have abandoned gun control as a political wedge, declining to push the issue in Congress despite being given the opportunity by congressional Republicans.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, upbraided President Bush earlier this month for not pushing fellow Republicans to bring the assault-weapons ban up for reauthorization before it expires in September 2004.

“The president has announced that he supports the assault ban, and it would be helpful if he used his good offices to do that,” Mrs. Pelosi said at her last weekly press briefing before the Memorial Day recess. “I don’t know whether he intends to or not.”

House Republicans consider it a pretty safe bet that he won’t, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas has stated that the chances of a renewal of the ban coming to the House floor are slim.

Yet Democrats still have options — both rhetorically, by trying to make gun control a hot-button issue again, and legislatively, by filing for a discharge petition to get a vote on the floor.

Mrs. Pelosi, however, has declined to commit to either strategy and acknowledged that if the vote comes to the floor, many Democrats would not vote to renew the ban.

“We would probably lose some votes,” Mrs. Pelosi said early this month. “It won’t be something that we would be whipping.”

Asked whether she would push for a discharge petition, which requires support from a majority of House members, to force an up-or-down vote on the assault-weapons ban, Mrs. Pelosi balked, saying that “our discharge focus is now on unemployment compensation.”

After the press briefing, however, Mrs. Pelosi said the Democrats might revisit guns “when the issue is ripe.”

Republicans see that as a dodge.

“There seems to be a disconnect between Leader Pelosi’s desire for the administration to utilize its ‘good offices,’ while at the same time maintaining that they don’t intend to whip the issue,” a high-level House Republican staffer said.

“If you want something done in this town, you have to be willing to lift a finger at the very least. But on this issue and so many others, it’s apparent that the Democrats aren’t interested in results, just rhetoric,” the staffer said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, has introduced a bill to reauthorize the ban on 19 types of “assault weapons,” which first passed in 1994. It has garnered eight co-sponsors after several weeks of courting.

Meanwhile, a bill protecting firearms manufacturers and gun-store owners from liability if their guns are used to commit crimes passed in the House on April 9 by a vote of 285-140, with the support of 63 Democrats.

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