WASHINGTON -- Gun rights advocates scored a smashing House victory early today in their drive to prevent Congress from adopting new restrictions on gun ownership as its primary response to the recent rash of school shootings.
In a sharp rebuke to President Clinton, a bipartisan majority of 218-211 voted to weaken controls on firearms sales at gun shows that were approved by the Senate in the wake of the student massacre in Littleton, Colo.
The weakening proposal, which had the blessing of the National Rifle Association, drew the support of 173 Republicans and 45 Democrats, while 47 Republicans and 163 Democrats and the one independent voted against it.
"The restrictions are seen as pointed more at law-abiding citizens rather than criminals themselves," said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. "To me, the answer is not more laws on the books but better enforcement of the laws we have."
Democrats, aided by long-distance lobbying from Clinton in Europe, fought what all acknowledged to be an uphill battle to match the Senate proposals. But as their defeat became clear many Democrats chanted: "Six seats, six seats," as a way of taunting the Republicans, suggesting they could lose their six-seat majority for rejecting a popular proposal.
Polls show Americans overwhelmingly support greater restrictions on the access to guns.
"We're not taking away one's right to buy a gun except criminals," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat elected to Congress after her husband and son were shot by a gunman on the Long Island Railroad. "We're supposed to be saving people's lives -- police officers and children."
The only two Marylanders to vote in favor of weakening the gun show restrictions were Roscoe G. Bartlett of WesternMaryland and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Baltimore County.
The two other Maryland Republicans, Constance A. Morella of Montgomery County, and Wayne T. Gilchrest of the Eastern Shore, voted along with all four Maryland Democrats against weakening the controls.
When the House was asked on a later vote -- long after midnight -- to adopt a proposal identical to the Senate bill, the margin of opposition was even wider: 235 to 193. The gun control showdown -- which had been timed by GOP leaders too late for the evening newscasts -- came after the House voted 287 to 139 to approve broader legislation addressing aspects of American culture that contribute to youth violence.
Provisions ranged from tougher penalties for youths committing gun crimes and efforts to improve school safety to attacks on violence in videos, music and movies and attempts to reintroduce religious observations in schools. One provision would allow states to display the Ten Commandments in schools.
Majority Whip Tom DeLay, seeking to cast the Republican-led effort in a favorable light, congratulated his colleagues in the bitterly divided House for working together.
"For the last two days, we have stood up in a bipartisan way and looked at the problems of Columbine High School, recognized what those problems are and addressed them in many different ways," he said.
But DeLay couldn't resist a jab at first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a favorite Republican symbol of liberal thinking, by referring to the theme of her book.
"It doesn't take a village to raise a child; it takes a mother and a father who live in a village that is conducive to raising a child," DeLay said. "What this bill does is recognize that you have to have structure, and limits, and you have to eliminate a culture that encourages kids to kill kids."
Most attention in the gun-control debate focused on gun shows, described by many members as a family pastime for hobbyists but where student killers in Colorado and elsewhere were able to obtain weapons without the background checks that apply to dealers in gun shops.
The proposal approved early today would reduce to 24 hours the time that background checks of gun-show buyers would be conducted, from the three business days established by the Senate bill.
Proponents argued that gun shows are normally held on the weekends and don't last for three days.
But advocates of the Senate measure contended that because gun shows are held on the weekends there isn't enough time to check records at courts that are closed Sundays.
Under the weaker proposal, the definition of gun shows would also be narrowed to apply only when at least 10 vendors and 50 guns are present. Under the provision approved by the Senate, a display of 50 guns by one vendor would constitute a gun show.
House resistance to the Senate-passed gun control measures dashes President Clinton's hopes of persuading the House to approve more far-reaching measures than the Senate did. It will also likely mean that the final bill emerging from a compromise session between the two chambers will be weaker than the version passed by the Senate.
Clinton, who spent much of the day calling wavering House members from Paris on his way to the economic summit that opens today in Cologne, Germany, apparently made little headway.
"A lot of people remember that the president's machinations in 1994 helped cost the Democrats control of the House," said Rep. John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat whom Republican leaders allowed to take the lead in weakening the gun control measures.
Approving limited controls on gun-show sales represents a concession for some gun rights advocates in the House, who are fighting against any curbs.
DeLay, an outspoken gun rights advocate, found himself in the unusual position of trying to persuade Republican colleagues who, like him, oppose gun controls, to support the Dingell proposal for fear that the House might pass something more restrictive.
House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt, an advocate of tighter gun controls, suggested that the House has been relatively impervious to the growing public support for gun control because of effective lobbying by the National Rifle Association.
"I'm in admiration of what they're able to do," Gephardt said, referring to an organization that has poured an estimated $14 million into political campaigns in the past decade.
Members of Congress "are looking at a big independent expenditure that can be run against them, at votes that can be implemented against them" if they defy the organization's wishes, the House Democratic leader added.
Many gun rights advocates in Congress tried to focus attention on what they called the root causes of youth violence: the decline of religion in public life and the rise in videos, music and movies that encourage violence and a lack of respect for life.
Several proposals were approved to loosen restrictions on religious observance in schools, including an amendment giving states permission to decide whether the Ten Commandments can be displayed in public facilities.
Rep. Robert Aderholt, an Alabama Republican who sponsored the amendment, said: "I understand that simply posting the Ten Commandments will not instantly change the moral character of our nation. However, it is an important step to promote morality, and an end of children killing children."
Democrats called that proposal unconstitutional because it could be used to advocate one religion over another.
"Whose Ten Commandments? The Christian version, the Protestant version or the Jewish version?" asked Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat. "They're different, you know."
The Supreme Court in 1980 struck down as unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom. The court said such postings violated the required separation of religion and government.
Some members despaired that after their lengthy debate, the House might have made little progress in the battle to curb juvenile crime, thanks to intense pressure from the gun lobby, the entertainment industry and other special interests that are resisting new restraints.
Several efforts to protect children from violent material in videos, music and movies were defeated. Some steps that were approved -- such as tougher penalties for minors who commit violent offenses -- might have limited effect because federal jurisdiction over juveniles is limited largely to Native Americans on reservations.
I'm afraid we're going to conclude this and find we've accomplished nothing," said Rep. Tim Roemer, an Indiana Democrat.
But Rep. Steve Buyer, an Indiana Republican, said that at a minimum, the Littleton shootings had unleashed the momentum that helped speed passage of a $1.5 billion juvenile block grant program to the states that has been languishing for three Congresses.
"There's money here for prevention programs, for prosecutors, for courts and juvenile placement officers," Buyer said. "We've passed it three times in the House and couldn't get it through the Senate until they added the gun control stuff to it."
Lawmakers also approved a variety of smaller measures intended to reduce teen-age gun crimes, including an incentive to states to suspend the driver's license of an offender younger than 21 who illegally possesses a firearm or commits a crime with one.