Focusing on 'Gun Show Loophole'

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 28 -- Never take your eyes off guns.

Though the issue largely faded from view after the 2000 elections, advocates and opponents of gun-control measures are gearing up for record midterm election spending and preparing for a series of legislative battles later this year.

The degree to which the national parties involve themselves in the debate is not simply a matter of ideology.

The most recent legislative tussle centers on what advocates of gun control call the "gun show loophole." Under federal law, licensed firearms dealers must run background checks on every gun buyer. But at gun shows, which number 4,000 a year, private collectors can swap, trade and sell without undertaking such checks. The National Rifle Association says that social science is on its side: Few crimes can be linked to guns purchased at gun shows.

Gun-control advocates say that a few is too many — that criminals and terrorists can exploit the slack enforcement and oversight of gun shows and purchase weapons. They hope the Sept. 11 attacks give new resonance to their longtime campaign to close the so-called gun show loophole.

Loophole Legislation

A bill to close the loophole, sponsored by Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, may soon come up for a vote.

Reed's measure would apply the language of the Brady Law, which requires mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, to gun shows. Law enforcement agencies would have three business days to scour their files.

A competing bill, co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and others, hasn't yet been scheduled for a floor debate, aides to those senators said.

That bill is being peddled as a moderate compromise—it would require background checks, but would allow states to request a waiver that might enforcement options.

McCain is said by advocates of his legislation to be shopping for the right moment to attach the bill to a much bigger piece of legislation so that its chances for passage are improved — perhaps on a homeland security measure that is still being drafted by several committees.

Reed's staff said their Senator has been promised by Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-Sd., that his bill would be considered first.