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Date Posted: 19:33:10 07/31/02 Wed
Author: It's me again margaret...
Subject: I smell Trent's S**T (again)

'Odd Couple' Senators Join Forces on Gun Bill
Sens. Schumer, Craig join forces on background checks
By Elaine S. Povich
WASHINGTON BUREAU

July 31, 2002

Washington - New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer yesterday found the unlikeliest of allies to strengthen the instant background-check system for gun buyers - Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, a National Rifle Association board member and longtime Schumer nemesis on gun control legislation.

Schumer, Craig and Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the icon of the liberal left, along with John McCain, the maverick Arizona Republican, joined forces on a bill that would give states incentives for forwarding records on mental illness and domestic violence, and other relevant information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The system is used to determine whether potential gun buyers can get a weapon or whether they are disqualified because of criminal history or mental illness. Many states don't provide complete information to the database because they don't have it computerized or easily available.

"I'm Oscar Madison, and he's Felix Unger," Schumer said with a smile, using "The Odd Couple" of old TV show fame, to describe himself and Craig. Craig went further.

"When you see the four of us together, we're not an odd couple, we're an odd quad," he said.

The unusual alliance bodes well for the Senate outlook on the legislation, which the House Judiciary Committee already has approved 30-2 and is scheduled for full House action in September. Introduced in the House by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), it is named "Our Lady of Peace Act," after the Lynbrook church where a man with a record of mental illness was charged with fatally shooting the Rev. Lawrence Penzes and parishioner Eileen Tosner in March. The suspect, Peter Troy, passed a federal background check and was allowed to buy a semi-automatic gun because his mental health records had not been forwarded to the background-check system.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) appeared supportive of the bill. Daschle said he expected to bring it up this fall under expedited procedures.

"It isn't often you get a Craig-Schumer coalition," Daschle said. "Any time you get one, seize it."

Lott also noted the unusual coalition. "If those four are together on it, I'll have to look very closely at it," Lott said with a smile, adding that he favors strengthening the instant-check system.

The NRA, the nation's staunchest group opposed to gun control laws, also has come out in favor of the enhanced instant-check system. The group echoed Craig, saying it will help law-abiding gun purchasers get their weapons more quickly.

"If we do this properly, then the millions and millions of Americans who assume the responsible use of firearms are less threatened by those concerned that somehow firearms are rampant on the American scene," Craig said.

The bill would provide the states $375 million a year for three years to update their records and forward those pertaining to mental illness, restraining orders, indictments, convictions for drug use and fugitives from justice to the system. The bill also calls for purging information from the system that is no longer relevant, including records of those indicted but later found innocent.

The new-found coalition, however, is likely not to endure on other gun legislation. Craig disagrees vehemently with Schumer, Kennedy and McCain when it comes to what Schumer calls "closing the gun show loophole" that would subject gun sales at shows to the same background-check rules as retail purchases.

"John [McCain] and I will not debate gun shows before you today," Craig said. "There is the issue of 'loophole' and there is also the definition of what is a show and what is a [gun] transaction."
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.

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