U.S.

Shooting Victim Fights For Guns

April 13, 2000 / 11:19 AM EDT / AP

Lance Kirklin, shot five times during last year's Columbine massacre, was wounded so badly by one blast that much of the left side of his face was torn away.

Yet as President Clinton came to town Wednesday to lobby for tougher gun laws, the teen-ager defended people's right to have and use guns.

"It's not guns that kill people; it's people who kill people," said Kirklin, who likes to go hunting.

Kirklin's stance was among the hurdles Clinton faced as he came to Denver, just a few miles away from last year's Columbine tragedy, to boost support for stricter gun-control measures.

Speaking at a town meeting at the University of Denver, Clinton acknowledged that the gun-control laws he supports may not have prevented the carnage at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

But Clinton said such proposals should not be judged solely by whether they could have stopped the country's deadliest school shooting.

"You can't refuse to vote for a law because it's not perfect and won't solve every problem," Clinton said at the town meeting, which was full of students, law enforcement, politicians and families of Columbine victims.

In a second session of the meeting, broadcast nationally on MSNBC, Gov. Bill Owens echoed some of the same themes sounded by the president, whom he declined to appear with earlier in the day.

Owens, a Republican, said he supports a proposed Colorado ballot initiative to close the gun show "loophole," which exempts unlicensed gun sellers from running background checks on buyers.

"I'm committed to the initiative," said Owens, who plans to campaign for it.

Clinton is lobbying Congress for measures to close the loophole and came to Denver to support an effort to get the initiative on the November ballot.

State House Majority Leader Doug Dean of Colorado Springs said closing the loophole would not have disqualified 18-year-old Robyn Anderson from buying a rifle and two shotguns at a Denver gun show for Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

The pair used those weapons to kill a teacher and 12 students and wound 23 others before taking their own lives.

Dean is one of the Republican leaders who helped defeat several gun-control bills this year.

Clinton has been criticized for visiting Colorado so close to the Columbine anniversary. Owens declined to appear with the president at the rally because Clinton's staff called it "an attempt to put the heat on Congress."

But Mary Wright, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Denver, said the issue is important to talk about.

"Columbine did enhance my feelings about gun-control laws. Gun-control laws are not going to stop the violence but it will cut back," Wright said.