Dems choose to mourn now, debate later

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), an intensive care unit nurse before she came to Congress after a gunman killed her husband in 1993, said there were lots of patients she could not save.

“But that didn’t mean that I didn’t try,” said McCarthy, whose son also was injured when a gunman killed six passengers aboard a Long Island Rail Road train.

{mosads} Following the mass murder at Virginia Tech on Monday that left 33 dead, McCarthy told reporters yesterday she pressed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to move her bill, H.R. 297, which would direct more money to states to upgrade the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

“I came here to save lives,” she said yesterday, adding that it is a “myth” that Democrats would be hurt politically by debating gun control.

But Democratic leaders eschewed the politics of gun control for the politics of grief. Democrats held a moment of silence during their weekly caucus meeting and postponed votes until past 5 p.m. so that lawmakers could attend a convocation with President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, but they pointedly shied away from discussing steps Congress might take to address issues raised by the massacre.

“We’re in mourning,” Pelosi told a reporter yesterday when asked whether gun control legislation would be brought to the floor.

During his weekly pen-and-pad briefing, Hoyer echoed Pelosi’s sentiment: “My expectation is [that] there will be a debate. I am not going to enter into the debate today.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a supporter of gun rights, said, “We need to take a deep breath. There is an investigation that’s being conducted by the Blacksburg police … We need to wait and find out what should and shouldn’t be done.”

Democratic aides expressed frustration that they were expected to have a legislative response 24 hours after the shooting, before all the facts were known. Some aides said that if anything were to happen, the new laws would focus on directing more funding to police departments, not curbing gun rights.

Nevertheless, the debate over gun control could reach the House floor tomorrow when Democrats will try again to pass the D.C. Voting Rights bill. They yanked the measure from the floor last month after Republicans offered a motion to recommit revoking the D.C. ban on gun ownership. If the motion to recommit passed, Republicans would have effectively killed the bill by sending it back to committee.

Hoyer said Democratic lawmakers would be encouraged to oppose the motion to recommit if it is offered again. In the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech, Hoyer said it would be harder for lawmakers to vote yes on it.

However, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said yesterday that Republicans would not be allowed to offer a similar motion to recommit because it was not “germane” to the legislation at hand. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said he asked a group of Democrats yesterday whether the tragedy at Virginia Tech would change the congressional debate over gun control.

“People I expected to say no, said no,” Rangel said after an address at the National Press Club. “It’s a regional thing, it’s a cultural thing, it’s a sad thing. It’s some type of cult: ‘Don’t touch, don’t take the gun from my dead cold hands."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a backer of gun control, said, “I think this is the week to extend our sympathy, to allow people to mourn.”

Asked about reaction among Senate Democrats, Feinstein said, “There’s been a lot of shock, and not much chance to talk about it. … It could be very hard [to get any new legislation through on gun control]. It’s always very hard.”
“It’s a tragic situation,” Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said, adding that it is premature to be talking about gun control legislation.

Republicans, too, were cautious.

Blunt said, “I don’t see that this tragedy — and it is a tragedy — will have any significant impact on the views of members of Congress on the Second Amendment.”

GOP Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) said Congress should wait until more details surface about the shootings before drafting any legislation.

“I think it would be poor judgment for us to have some rush to bill-drafting before we fully understand exactly what took place on that campus,” Putnam said.

McCarthy talked to Pelosi and Hoyer at the end of the Democratic Caucus meeting, said her spokesman. No legislative promises were made.

Jackie Kucinich, Mike Soraghan, Elana Schor, and Ian Swanson contributed to this report.