Re: 2:00pm vote on gun control

[Ry Jones <rjones@moscow.com>]

At 11:51 AM 6/18/99 , Stephen Cooke wrote:
> In a 218-211 vote the NRA "gun control bill won last night. Another vote 
>will be taken at 2:00 pm (pst?) on the background check at gun shows issue. 

of course the vote took place an hour ago. Here's the story from the AP feed.

House rejects gun control bill 
By LAURIE KELLMAN 
The Associated Press
06/18/99 2:34 PM Eastern 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-controlled House rejected a gun control bill
today that would have lessened some current restrictions while imposing others.
The vote against was 280-147. 
The bipartisan rejection came at the end of a tumultuous three-day debate as
lawmakers struggled to respond to this spring's high school shootings in
Colorado and Georgia. 
The vote leaves the fate of gun control legislation uncertain. The Senate last
month approved stronger restrictions, and compromise talks with the House are
likely to begin this summer. 
Most of the no votes were supplied by Democrats, who objected to a National
Rifle Association-backed provision that would have weakened existing
restrictions on the sale of weapons at gun shows. But some conservatives also
objected, on grounds that the bill would also have required safety devices to
be sold with all handguns. 
The GOP leadership met a few hours before the vote, and Speaker Dennis Hastert
said he wanted an all-out effort to pass the bill. GOP officials, who spoke on
condition of anonymity said he expressed concern that unless the bill passed,
Democrats would pepper appropriations bills with gun-related amendments. 
Asked about 90 minutes before the roll call whether he would have the votes to
prevail, the GOP whip, Rep. Tom DeLay, said, "Maybe. Not right now." 
The developments came several hours after a midnight vote in which the NRA
prevailed on an amendment to loosen restrictions on sales at gun shows. 
President Clinton conceded momentary defeat. 
Asked today if the NRA beat him, Clinton snapped: "They did." 
The 218-211 vote, he added, "was a great victory for the NRA but it was a great
defeat for the safety of our children." 
Attorney General Janet Reno concurred, saying the vote is "a very big step
backwards." and "incomprehensible." 
Supporters of the measure said it would help restore the rights of law-abiding
citizens, but Clinton accused them of squeaking the legislation through "in the
dead of night" when the average American might not notice. 
"So one more time, the Congress of the United States ... said, 'We don't care
what's necessary to protect our children. We can't possibly bear to make anyone
in the NRA mad,"' Clinton said bitterly in a morning-after exchange with
reporters in Cologne, Germany. 
The House vote took place Thursday at midnight on an amendment sponsored by the
chamber's most senior Democrat, Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, to a juvenile
crime bill being crafted in response to recent high school shooting sprees in
Colorado and elsewhere. 
The House began its daylight proceedings today by approving, 311-115, an
amendment by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., requiring safety locks to be sold with all
handguns. 
Far from conforming to the Senate-passed gun restrictions, Dingell's provision
would cover even fewer gun shows than current law. In addition, the amendment
would give the government only 24 hours to complete background checks, rather
than the three days that is now the case. 
The House rejected a Senate provision requiring background checks at gun shows,
regardless of their size or the number of guns sold. The proposal by Rep.
Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., lost 235-193. 
Clinton, who is attending a world economic conference in Cologne, Germany,
said, "Instead of closing the deadly gun-show loophole, the House of
Representatives voted in the dead of night to let criminals keep buying guns at
gun shows. This vote will not stand the light of day. I will keep working until
Congress stands up to the gun lobby and makes the commonsense measures passed
by the Senate the law of the land." 
Earlier, the House voted to permit the Ten Commandments to be posted in schools
and state public facilities, a provision that supporters said would help
promote morality. 
Clinton said he applauds the intent behind that amendment, but believes the
measure invites a court challenge. He said he would speak to lawmakers about
"another option" he didn't specify that would avoid imposing one religion on
students. 
The votes marked the House's opening shots at juvenile violence in the
politically volatile period between a spate of school shootings and an election
year. The task is particularly weighty for House Republicans, who are defending
their narrowest majority -- six seats -- since the GOP's historic takeover of
Congress in 1995. 
Democrats chanted "six seats, six seats!" as the vote on Dingell's amendment
was tallied. But the chief GOP vote wrangler, Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas,
wasn't listening. After days lobbying his colleagues, his eyes stayed locked on
the vote board, which lists the names of lawmakers and the votes as they cast
them. 
Dingell had promised 38 Democrats would support his amendment. But when DeLay
realized seven additional Democrats were voting yes, the Texan slapped his
hands together once, turned toward the back of the chamber and pumped his fist
back and forth in victory. 
Democrats refused to give up. 
"We are whipped, but we're not down," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said on
her way back to the Capitol this morning, just a few hours after the House
recessed. 
Indeed, the House today approved several measures that bring its juvenile
justice bill closer to the Senate's. 
Members approved amendments banning the import of large-capacity clips and
magazines; permitting retired and former law enforcement officers to carry
concealed weapons; prohibiting those under 18 from possessing semiautomatic
assault weapons; requiring background checks on those who try to reclaim their
pawned guns after a year; allowing District of Columbia citizens with no
criminal history to possess loaded handguns in their homes; and imposing a
lifetime ownership ban on those who committed "violent acts of juvenile
delinquency."