Democrats divided on gun issue

Washington Post:

The largest mass shooting in U.S. history forced reluctant Democratic leaders in Congress yesterday to confront an issue that divides their party and holds considerable political peril: gun control.

Advocates of stricter gun laws, such as Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), met with Democratic leaders, determined to resurrect an issue that has been dormant since the shootings at Columbine High School near Denver in 1999. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) elicited a pledge from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) to hold a hearing on the shootings.

"We need to stand up and do something," said McCarthy, whose husband was killed in a gunman's rampage on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993.

But Democrats on both sides of the issue were skeptical that the 33 deaths at Virginia Tech would change a political equation that has turned in the favor of gun rights advocates. Even after Columbine, no major gun-control laws passed Congress.

Since then, restrictions on guns have eased, with the 2004 expiration of President Bill Clinton's landmark assault weapons ban, passage in 2005 of legislation shielding gunmakers from lawsuits, and a 2003 measure preventing local enforcement agencies from consulting police in other states on firearms traces.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) boasts of a favorable rating from the National Rifle Association, which lobbies against gun control, and House Democratic leaders are in no rush to jeopardize conservative freshmen elected from Republican-leaning districts in Indiana, North Carolina and Kansas.

"Unless we get some leadership from the White House, we're not going to take this kind of political damage bringing up something that would never become law," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), a gun-control advocate.

...

Lloyd was a classmate of mine in law school and he is an honest liberal. But, there is absolutely no reason for the President to give the Democrats cover on this issue. If he did they would turn around and gut him the way they did his father after persuading him to accept a tax increase.

In their hearts the Democrats would love to do away with the second amendment. They may be suicidal when dealing with our terrorist enemy, but they are not politically suicidal at this point when it comes to the gun issue. They know it cost them control of Congress in 1994 and it cost AlGore the White House in 2000. This will prove that they can stand up to the base of their party when it comes to political survival.

This is an analysis of recent polling on the gun issue.