Latest news: Inside the Columbine investigation: Part one Part two Part three

States would receive funding if they imposed mandatory 5-year terms for armed crimes

By Eric Schmitt
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Conceding vulnerability on a hot campaign issue, House Republican leaders Tuesday sent to the floor a popular gun-crime bill, written by Republicans, and passed it.

This gave them something to show before next week's anniversary of the fatal shootings at Columbine High School.

Lawmakers voted 358-60 to send $100 million in block grants to states that impose mandatory jail sentences for gun crimes. Only six states, including Colorado, would now qualify for the grants, but supporters said that number would grow. All but three Republicans voted in favor of the measure.

Colorado Republicans Scott McInnis, Bob Schaffer and Tom Tancredo voted yes, along with Democrat Mark Udall. Republican Joel Helfley and Democrat Diana DeGrette did not vote on the bill.

Republican leaders expressed confidence that the vote would arm rank-and-file members heading home for a two-week recess on Friday with the ability to claim achievement of a wide-ranging gun-control bill.

But in a sign of the party's anxiety over the issue, House Republican leaders railroaded the bill to the floor under a time-saving procedure that bars amendments, even though the measure had only one hearing and no votes in the House Judiciary Committee. "Our leadership wanted this bill on the floor because the Columbine anniversary is coming up next week," Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., who sponsored the bill, said in an interview.

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, introduced a similar bill in the Senate on Tuesday that has broad Republican support but will probably become a magnet for Democratic amendments.

The White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said that Tuesday's House vote was "a political trap" for Democrats and "a cruel political trick on the American public" because it failed to pay for 500 additional federal agents and 1,000 prosecutors that President Clinton had called for. But Lockhart stopped short of threatening a presidential veto.

Clinton went to Annapolis, Md., on Tuesday for a bill-signing ceremony that made Maryland the first state in the country to require built-in safety locks on handguns and other stringent gun controls.

Today, Clinton and Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, the House Democratic leader, will travel to Colorado to throw their support behind a state ballot initiative to require that all sales at gun shows, including those by unlicensed dealers, be subject to background checks.

Under the House measure, states would qualify for grants if they agreed to set mandatory minimum five-year sentences for criminals convicted of using or possessing a gun during a violent crime.

The five-year sentence would be in addition to the sentence provided for the underlying crime. States also would have to agree to coordinate with federal prosecutors and law-enforcement authorities.

The provisions are patterned after Project Exile, a federal program started in 1997 in Richmond, Va., by a Clinton-appointed U.S. attorney. Since then, violent crime in Richmond is down by 35 percent.

The six states that have adopted similar laws since then are Colorado, Virginia, Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida.

But critics said the House bill added new, unnecessary mandatory minimum jail terms, and relatively small financial incentives to states that change their laws.

The bill, for example, calls for $100 million in grants over the next five years, including $10 million next year and $15 million in 2002. The bill broadly defines how states can use the money to include police, prosecutors, courts and prison expansion.

Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said the grants would cover the incarceration costs of only half a dozen new inmates.

"Although it sounds good and makes a good slogan, it's not a good policy," said Scott, who added that other cities in Virginia such as Norfolk and Virginia Beach had reduced their violent crime rates with Project Exile-type programs.

April 12, 2000