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House passes bill on gun background checksMeasure pending in the Senate
From Ted Barrett
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In the wake of the sniper attacks in the Washington area that have left nine people dead and two wounded, the Republican-led House Tuesday passed a bill designed to improve background checks for gun purchases. The bill, which was introduced long before the recent wave of violence, passed on a voice vote, moving quickly because of the shootings. The legislation authorizes grants to states to computerize court and other records for inclusion in the FBI-operated National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database, which is used to identify people banned by federal law from buying guns. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott said he hoped the chamber would consider the bill and "pass it immediately." But there was no scheduled debate or vote for the measure in the Senate. The House action appeared colored in part by political races in Maryland, where some of the shootings have occurred and where gun control has emerged as a campaign issue. Because most states have not automated nor shared their records with NICS, 10,000 convicted felons were able to acquire guns in the last 30 months, according to bill sponsors Reps. John Dingell, D-Michigan, and Carolyn McCarthy, D-New York. The House took up the bill after Rep. Connie Morella, a Republican from Montgomery County, Maryland -- where the sniper murders started -- approached Republican House leaders last week about getting the bill to the floor, according to Greg Crist, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Morella is in a tough re-election battle with Christopher Van Hollen, a Democrat who has made gun-control a centerpiece of his campaign. In a related matter, Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, blasted Maryland officials Tuesday for not providing some information to the NICS program for six months this year. In letters made public by Sensenbrenner's office, the state archivists said budget constraints forced them to discontinue record searches by hand without being paid $25 for each search, or about $45,000 per year. The state has since resumed the searches. Sensenbrenner called the state's action "outrageous" and asked the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to look into what Maryland did with nearly $7 million in federal funds designed to help the state improve its criminal history records and get that information to the NICS program. Sensenbrenner blamed Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for the decision. Townsend is running for governor in Maryland, locked in a tight race against Republican Bob Ehrlich. During the floor debate, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana, said that on Sunday night his family shopped at the Home Depot in northern Virginia where a woman was killed by the sniper Monday night. "My wife informed me it was there that she had taken our 9-year-old daughter on Sunday night to purchase their fall mums and bring them home. Happily reporting to me she had parked safely in a covered garage at that Home Depot," Pence said emotionally from the House floor. "There but for the grace of God goes my family." The bill authorizes about $1 billion to help states provide the federal government with information on people who have served long jail terms, abused drugs, been convicted of domestic violence, been committed to mental institutions, or been involved in other activities that disqualify them from owning guns.
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