Colorado group submits gun show petitions

DENVER (Reuters) -- A Colorado group Wednesday submitted petitions that are likely to lead to a statewide vote on whether to require criminal background checks on all purchases at gun shows, a campaign prompted by last year's massacre at Columbine High School.

If 62,438 signatures of the nearly 110,000 collected are deemed proper by the secretary of state and survive challenges by gun rights advocates, the measure would appear on the ballot in elections on Nov. 7.

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Polls show Colorado voters back the measure. "What a great day for Daniel, for my son," Tom Mauser said on the steps of the state capitol, referring to his 15-year-old son, who was among 13 gunned down on April 20, 1999 when two teenage gunmen attacked the school.

Mauser has said that two weeks before the massacre his son told him there were "loopholes in the Brady bill" because only federally licensed dealers must conduct checks, not private ones.

President Clinton, who came to Denver to speak on behalf of the measure, said Congress should pass a similar measure that would apply to the entire country.

"While Colorado's progress is encouraging, we should not have to rely on a patchwork of state laws when it comes to protecting our children's safety," he said in a statement released by the White House.

An investigation into Columbine showed that Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, got a friend, Robyn Anderson, to buy weapons for them from a private dealer at a gun show because they were both underage at the time.

Anderson, who police have said knew nothing of the plot, later said she would have hesitated to help the duo if her name would have been connected to a background check. "It doesn't make any sense to have two tables at a gun show, one with a licensed gun dealer where somebody has to go through a background check and another one -- simply because a person is not a licensed gun dealer -- has no requirement to take the purchaser through this kind of check," Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar said.

After Columbine, a campaign was launched to change the law, but failed in the Republican-dominated state house, despite endorsement by the Republican governor, Bill Owens.

SAFE Colorado, which stands for Sane Alternatives to the Firearms Epidemic, was born and in three months collected the petitions, successfully fending off court challenges from gun rights advocates.

Dudley Brown, who heads Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said expanding background checks would represent "a step toward major registration of firearms for private sales."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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