President works the crowd, appealing to firearms lobby, urging Coloradans to persist with supporting legislation

By Carla Crowder
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

President Clinton mixed folksy charm with pep rally enthusiasm Wednesday as he breezed through Denver to rally Colorado's gun-control troops.

The president was both a good ol' boy who understands the lure of the "deer woods," and a politician with a message, taking credit for a 35 percent drop in gun crime and quoting that statistic five times.

"I was 12 years old when I first shot a can off a fence post with a .22," Clinton said. "Unlike most elected officials in Washington, I've actually been to gun shows."

And gun shows are the main reason Clinton came to Colorado. His visit also coincided with the upcoming first anniversary of the Columbine killings.

Clinton was the big draw at a morning rally of supporters of SAFE Colorado.

The bipartisan grass-roots group is pushing a ballot initiative to close Colorado's so-called gun-show loophole, which allows unlicensed citizens to sell guns without checking buyers' criminal backgrounds.

"I admire you. I support you. Don't quit until you win," Clinton told the packed room of more than 3,000 people that included local political leaders, school children and Clinton fans of all ages.

Clinton knew his crowd.

In a state full of hunters, shooters and independent thinkers, gun regulation is as volatile an issue in Colorado as anywhere in the nation. He seemed to take pains not to step on too many toes.

Yet he kept the crowded room applauding and cheering.

"It was like a mosh pit in there," said Evergreen High School student Elizabeth Griffin, 15, one of hundreds who waited to shake Clinton's hand after the speech.

They were not disappointed. He lingered for 30 minutes, working the rope.

"He said 'Hello dear,' to my wife," said 72-year-old Sherman Scott, with a mischievous smile, happy the president had noticed his wheelchair-bound wife, Virginia Scott, 86.

In the afternoon, Clinton appeared with NBC's Tom Brokaw in a live town hall meeting on the University of Denver campus. Gun-control was the lone topic.

Both events were filled with references to Colorado's prominent place in the gun spotlight.

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"We know it's a state that has Republicans and Democrats," the president said. "We know it's a state that has a strong culture that favors hunting and sport shooting. 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."

Denver Mayor Wellington Webb made a reference to Clinton detractors who criticized the visit as political grandstanding so close to the Columbine anniversary.

"There were a lot of people who didn't think we would give a warm welcome to a special person," Webb said, calling the president a "courageous ally."

During the speech, several hundred protesters chanted outside, both gun activists, and presidential protest regulars with giant posters of aborted fetuses.

Inside, the criticism was directed at the Republican-led Colorado legislature, which killed most gun-control bills this session, including one to close the gun show loophole.

And that's "ticked off a lot of Coloradans," said Tom Mauser, SAFE Colorado's political director, and father of Daniel Mauser who was killed at Columbine.

Echoing SAFE's bipartisan spirit, Clinton and Mauser both praised Republican Gov. Bill Owens, even though Owens shunned Clinton, declining to join him at either appearance.

Twice, Clinton mentioned Owens, each time crediting the governor for trying to get the gun-friendly legislature to budge.

But most of the president's comments were directed at the crowd.

SAFE Colorado needs about 62,000 petition signatures to get the proposal on the ballot.

Clinton urged all to join that grassroots effort.

"If everybody in this room ... there's about 3,000 people here, right? If you got 20 signatures it would be a done deal."

In another effort to move past traditional partisan bickering on gun control, SAFE Colorado co-founder John Head, a lifelong Republican, thanked Clinton for his help.

"Your voice is indeed an important one," Head said.

Time and again Wednesday, Clinton returned to his rural Arkansas roots as he spoke.

"Let me tell you something. I come from a state where factories in small towns shut down on the first day of deer season," he said.

During the early 1990s debate on the Brady law and assault weapons ban, he told hunters and sportsmen "if you miss a day in the deer woods, even an hour in the deer woods, I'll be against this bill ... Of course they haven't. That's not what this is about."

The Brady Bill took effect in 1994, requiring, for the first time, criminal background checks on handgun buyers.

But only federally licensed dealers must make those checks, hence the "loophole," which sends many buyers to unlicensed sellers.

That was the argument from the gun lobby six years ago, Clinton said, that Brady wouldn't work because criminals would flock to gun shows and flea markets.

They have, Clinton said.

Last year, the federal Treasury and Justice departments investigated 314 gun shows. They found that 34 percent of the sales investigated involved guns later used in crimes — a total of 54,000 gun crimes, he said.

"And now, you say you can't have background checks at gun shows because it would be too burdensome?" he asked.

Contact Carla Crowder at (303) 892-2742 or crowderc@RockyMountainNews.com.