U.S.

Clinton Cites Columbine Legacy

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 6, 2000 / 9:28 PM EDT / CBS

Saying Colorado suffers from a broken heart because of the Columbine tragedy, President Clinton Wednesday took his push for a national gun laws to a rally and a town hall meeting just miles from the site of last year's high school massacre.

The President's speech at a rally of Sane Alternatives to the Firearms Epidemic (SAFE) in Denver continued this hard sell to Congress to pass his gun-safety measures before the anniversary of Columbine on April 20, reports CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts.

Mr. Clinton congratulated a bipartisan group of activists working for a state ballot measure that would impose new requirements for buyers at Colorado gun shows, as Mr. Clinton wants to do nationally.

"You are not alone, and America is listening," Mr. Clinton said.

"The country is looking very closely at Colorado," the president said. "We know it's a state with a broken heart over Columbine. We know it's a state where people can put aside their partisan differences, and maybe even their lifetime culture, to look at the facts. Other states will follow your lead. I hope and pray Congress will follow your lead as well."

Later, Clinton participated in a town hall meeting televised nationally on MSNBC. Almost immediately, state legislator Doug Dean told him closing the loophole would not have stopped the Columbine tragedy because the purchaser would have passed a background check.

"So it really wouldn't have had any impact," Dean said. "Our legislative responsibility is to pass legislation that actually will go to the root of the problem."

Replied Clinton: "You can't refuse to vote for a law because it's not perfect and it won't solve every problem."

The president’s visit was one of several commemorative events in Colorado’s capitol.

CBS News Reporter Lee Frank in Denver reports volunteers Tuesday placed more than 4,000 pairs of shoes on the steps of the state capital—a silent tribute to the number of children killed by guns in the U.S. last year.

SAFE has asked the President to back their ballot initiative to close the so-called "gun show loophole" in Colorado—and require background checks for people who purchase handguns from unlicensed sellers.

Legislation on the matter failed in the Colorado legislature this year, so SAFE, a group organized after Columbine, launched a petition campaign to put the issue on the ballot this November.

Under current federal law, unlicensed dealers may sell weapons in private transactions without subjecting the purchasers to a background check.

But not everyone was happy with the president's decision to appear.
Governor Bill Owens, who supports the ballot measure, turned down an invitation to appear, complaining that the President is politicizing the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

As the anniversary approached, White House aides acknowledged this week that there is no chance of a natonal gun-show bill before April 20.

A House-Senate conference committee has been assigned to reconcile differences between a Senate-passed bill that would set a 72-hour background check on gun-show sales and a House bill that shrank the wait to 24 hours.

The committee has met only once, in August.

Mr. Clinton's Denver visit is one of several trips he's making to highlight state efforts to curb gun violence the president thinks Congress should address on a national level. Tuesday he witnessed the signing of a Maryland bill requiring built-in locks on handguns while imposing other stringent gun-control rules.

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