Senate Shoots Down Gun Bill
In the first vote on gun control since last month's shooting spree in a Colorado high school, the Republican-controlled Senate Wednesday rejected fresh restrictions on sales at gun shows.
Instead, on a vote of 53-45, the Senate signaled support for a system of voluntary background checks on private sales at gun shows.
The fallout from the awful events in Littleton is beginning to be felt on the campaign trail, reports CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer.
In a speech Tuesday night, Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole surprised many in her party when she said Americans must insure the safety of children even if it means having the guts to stand up to the gun lobby.
Last week she called for banning assault weapons. Tuesday night, she added this: "I think it's wrong to let people carry concealed weapons."
That was a direct challenge to GOP presidential frontrunner George W. Bush, who as governor signed legislation in 1995 allowing people to carry concealed weapons in Texas.
The developments in the Senate marked a victory for the National Rifle Association and a defeat for gun control advocates, who had claimed that the shooting deaths at Columbine High School would give their cause fresh momentum. Instead, their plan was killed on a vote of 51-47.
"There are many criminals who use gun shows as a place to procure their weaponry to commit the mayhem that they do," argued Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who led the failed drive to close what he said was a "loophole" in the current law that allows private sales at gun shows without instant background checks.
He said there was evidence that some of the weapons used in the Colorado shooting spree had been purchased by a young woman at a gun show.
But Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, countered that Lautenberg's proposal would impose fresh restrictions on "private citizens who come to gun shows and engage in discussion with other private citizens and decide to exchange or sell their guns."
"Is that a loophole?" asked Craig, who is a member of the NRA board.
The Senate is also debating legislation to stiffen prosecution of juvenile crime, largely by providing added funds to prosecutors, making it easier to try suspects as young as 14 as adults and providing for tougher penalties.
In the wake of the Littleton shootings, the measure attracted Democratic gun control amendments as well as provisions crafted by Republicans to explore the connection between violence in music, video games and movies and real life.
Thus, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and a bipartisan group of senators won approval for a limited antitrust exemption to allow competing companies in the entertainment industry to explore creation of a voluntary code of conduct to restrict the amount of violence aimed at children.
In addition, the proposal calls for a study of the entertainment industry to see wheher it is marketing violence to children.
"We live unfortunately in a culture that glorifies violence... presented not as a horror, but as entertainment," said Brownback.
But in a move that underscored the Democratic insistence that guns be addressed as a cause of violence, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., won acceptance for a parallel study of the gun industry to see whether it is marketing its products to children.