Clinton offers plans for tougher gun laws

Faculty members embrace Monday as they are allowed to return to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. The campus reopened to faculty for the fi rst time since Thursday, when armed suspect Chris Harper-Mercer killed multiple people and wounded several others before taking his own life at Snyder Hall.
Faculty members embrace Monday as they are allowed to return to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. The campus reopened to faculty for the fi rst time since Thursday, when armed suspect Chris Harper-Mercer killed multiple people and wounded several others before taking his own life at Snyder Hall.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton offered an emotional plea Monday for tougher gun-control laws, vowing after last week's deadly Oregon school shooting to tighten regulations on firearms buyers and sellers with a combination of congressional and executive action.

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AP

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks Friday during a campaign event at Broward College in Davie, Fla.

In Oregon, faculty, staff members and students returned Monday to the community college for the first time since a gunman killed eight students and a teacher. Although classes do not resume until next week, the campus reopened to students and employees, some of whom picked up belongings they left behind when they fled the shooting Thursday.

During a campaign appearance in New Hampshire, Clinton decried the "extremism" that she said has come to characterize the debate over the nation's gun laws. She veered between sadness and anger, accusing her Republican opponents of "surrender" to a difficult political problem.

"This epidemic of gun violence knows no boundaries, knows no limits of any kind," she told the crowd of several hundred. "How many people have to die before we actually act, before we come together as a nation? It's time for us to say we're better than this."

Clinton has made strengthening the nation's gun laws a centerpiece of her presidential campaign after a series of mass shootings in the past few months.

Her campaign rolled out a set of proposals Monday, including using executive action as president to expand background check requirements. Under current federal law, such checks are not required for sales made at gun shows or over the Internet.

Clinton pledged to require anyone "attempting to sell a significant number of guns" to be considered a firearms dealer and therefore need a federal license. She did not say how many gun sales would constitute a "significant" number.

Efforts to require such comprehensive background checks have failed several times in recent years in Congress.

Clinton also said she would support a law to expand the definition of domestic abusers barred from buying guns. She also wants to prohibit retailers from selling guns to people with incomplete background checks, as happened in the June case of a man accused of killing nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C.

Clinton proposed repealing legislation that shields gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers of firearms from most liability suits, including in cases of mass shootings.

While Clinton's Republican rivals have condemned the Oregon attack, most were also quick to declare their opposition to stricter gun laws to address mass shootings.

Her plan strikes a contrast with her closest primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. While Sanders has wooed the Democratic base with his liberal positions on issues of income inequality and college debt, he has struggled to defend a more mixed record on gun legislation that reflects his rural, gun-friendly home state.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, Sanders backed all the Democratic gun bills brought up in Congress. But in 1993, he voted against the Brady handgun bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period for gun purchasers, and he backed legislation in 2005 granting legal immunity to many in the gun industry.

Sanders now says he supports banning assault weapons and closing the so-called gun show loophole that exempts private, unlicensed gun sales from background check requirements.

Clinton declined to address Sanders' positions on guns directly during a Monday morning event hosted by NBC's Today show, saying she'd let "Sen. Sanders talk about himself."

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm Ruger & Co. rose in trading after Clinton's plan fueled concern among gun enthusiasts that restrictions on sales may be coming.

Smith & Wesson, whose brands also include M&P and Thompson/Center Arms, rose 7.3 percent to close at $17.81 in New York, the biggest one-day jump since Aug. 28. Sturm Ruger, maker of Ruger American, Gunsite Scout and Hawkeye weapons, increased 2.6 percent to $57.93.

Retailers that sell firearms also benefited. Cabela's Inc. gained 2.9 percent to $45.40, while Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. increased 2.5 percent to $52.28.

The gunmakers' shares have seen gains in recent years in the wake of mass shootings that have led to increased calls for gun-ownership restrictions. Both companies also have seen sales rise in response to politicians' demands for tougher legislation.

"The threat of legislation can cause temporary buying surges," said Andrea James, an analyst with Dougherty & Co. who has a buy rating on both gunmakers. "The best thing for firearms demand is to have the constant threat of legislation without ever actually having the legislation."

Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Lerer, Steve Peoples, Alicia Caldwell, Ted Bridis, P. Solomon Banda and Jonathan J. Cooper of The Associated Press and by Yasufumi Saito of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 10/06/2015

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