Biden: Views fusing on guns

But after talks, NRA caustic

Vice President Joe Biden (second from right) said Thursday that he’s seeing “an emerging set of recommendations” on gun policies.
Vice President Joe Biden (second from right) said Thursday that he’s seeing “an emerging set of recommendations” on gun policies.

— Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he sees a growing consensus for universal background checks for gun buyers and a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, giving a preview of some policies he’ll recommend to President Barack Obama early next week.

“There is an emerging set of recommendations - not coming from me but coming from the groups we’ve met,”Biden said as he and a panel he is heading started a meeting with groups representing hunters and wildlife organizations.

The vice president said he plans to deliver by Tuesday his recommendations for legislative and executive actions to stem firearms violence as part of the administration’s response to last month’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

The main weapon used in the Dec. 14 shooting was a semiautomatic rifle modeled on a military weapon, and the gunman was equipped with high-capacity magazines, according to police. Most of the 20 children and six adults killed had been shot multiple times. At least a dozen other people were shot to death around the nation on the same day, according to police and news accounts.

Biden said he and other administration officials in the panel, as it met with gun control advocates and representatives of victims, repeatedly heard about the need for “near-universal background checks” in firearms transactions, greater freedom for federal agencies to conduct research about gun crimes, and limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines.

Such proposals have long been opposed by the National Rifle Association, the chief lobbyist for gun owners and manufacturers, which took part in a meeting with the vice president Thursday afternoon. An attempt to restrict firearms will open a political fight between the administration and members of Congress supported by the NRA.

“I have a real tight window to do this,” Biden said. “The public wants us to act.”




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Along with the NRA, this week’s sessions include other representatives of gun owners and manufacturers, the entertainment industry, including Comcast and the Motion Picture Association of America, and retailers Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest, and Dick’s Sporting Goods, the largest U.S. sporting-goods chain, which suspended sales of some rifles after the Connecticut shootings.

After the meeting, the NRA released a statement accusing the White House of pushing “an agenda to attack the Second Amendment,” rather than focusing on policies to improve safety for children.

“While claiming that no policy proposals would be ‘prejudged,’ this task force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners - honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans,” the group said. “It is unfortunate that this administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen.”

Since the Connecticut shootings, advocates of more restrictions have revived long stalled efforts to push for legislation to regulate or limit access to guns.

“There is nothing that has gone to the heart of the matter more than the image people have of little 6-year-old kids riddled, not shot, but riddled, riddled, with bullet holes in their classroom,” Biden said.

“I’m not sure we can guarantee this will never happen again, but as the president said, even if we can only save one life, it would make sense,” Biden said. “And I think we can do a great deal without in any way imposing on and impinging on the rights of the Second Amendment.”

The vice president didn’t mention the renewal of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, which expired in 2004. Obama has backed reinstating the ban, while the NRA and other gun owners groups oppose it.

Richard Feldman, the president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, said all were in agreement on a need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people with mental-health problems. But when the conversation turned to broad restrictions on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, Feldman said, Biden suggested the president had already made up his mind to seek a ban.

“Is there wiggle room and give?” Feldman said. “I don’t know.”

Since the mid-1990s, Congress has restricted gun violence research by federal agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Biden said there was a need to gather information on “what kind of weapons are used most to kill people” and “what kind of weapons are trafficked weapons.”

Obama can use his executive powers to act alone on some gun measures, but his options on the proposals opposed by the NRA are limited without Congress’ cooperation.

Gun-control backers see plenty of room for executive action when it comes to improving background checks and other areas.

For example, advocates say Obama could order the Justice Department to prosecute more people flagged by background checks as prohibited purchasers when they try to buy guns; expand a rule that requires dealers to notify the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when someone tries to buy multiple semiautomatic rifles, a program now confined to Mexico border states; and increase enforcement actions at gun shows.

The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns has sent the White House 40 steps it says would save lives and dramatically improve enforcement of existing laws without any action by Congress.

As legislative fixes percolate, outside groups are laying the groundwork to fight the NRA, which claims more than 4 million members and spent at least $20 million advocating for the election of pro-gun federal candidates last year.

Steve and Amber Mostyn, wealthy Texas trial lawyers, said Wednesday that they are giving $1 million to help a gun-control advocacy group formed by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. Giffords was critically wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six other people.

The NRA has rejected any new limits on firearms ownership, proposing instead that the government put armed guards in U.S. schools to protect students.

“The vice president made it clear, made it explicitly clear, that the president had already made up his mind on those issues,” NRA president David Keene said after the meeting Thursday. “We made it clear that we disagree with them.”

Other gun-rights advocates are pushing back against proposed rules as Republicans warn that it could be months before Congress takes up legislation.

A coalition of gun-rights groups has planned a nationwide action for Jan. 19, a day before Obama will be sworn in for a second term. The groups are urging gun-rights supporters to show up at firearms stores, gun shows and shooting ranges that day.

About 85 Americans are fatally shot daily - 53 of them suicides, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, restrictions on firearms have faced resistance in Congress for decades.

Beyond firearms restrictions, Biden has said the panel will examine ways to boost mental-health programs in schools and steps to alter a culture in the U.S. that glamorizes guns and violence.

Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Lerer and Julie Bykowicz of Bloomberg News; by Melanie Mason of the Tribune Washington Bureau; by Julie Pace and Erica Werner of The Associated Press; and by Anita Kumar and Lesley Clark of McClatchy Newspapers.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/11/2013

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