Page 189 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Political Organizations
The best chance for real legislative change was a crime bill that was un-
derconsiderationin1999and2000calledtheViolentandRepeatJuvenile
Offender Accountability and Rehabilitation Act of 1999. By spring of
2000, the bill had passed both the House and Senate. It provided for trial
of certain juveniles as adults, authorized funds for state law enforcement
and prevention, and included other law enforcement and prevention
measures. The Senate version of the bill, known informally as the Juve-
nile Crime bill, included a set of gun control amendments added after the
Columbine shooting spree. These amendments, including one passed on
a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Gore, called for mandatory back-
ground checks, a waiting period of up to three days, bans on the impor-
tation of high-capacity ammunition clips, requirements for child-safety
devices on handguns, a ban on firearms possession by people convicted
of violent crimes as juveniles, and a bar to juveniles acquiring assault
weapons. In the House, members had defeated gun control amendments,
and so their version of the Juvenile Crime bill that landed in conference
lacked the Senate measures. Republicans had refused throughout the
spring to schedule the Conference Committee, which was to be chaired
by Orrin Hatch, and Senate Democrats supporting the amendments had
failed to force conference action. As the date of the Million Mom March
approached, its organizers increasingly turned their attention to this bill
as a vehicle for achieving their goals. By the day of the march, it was clear
that if organizers were going to succeed, it would be through somehow
passing the Juvenile Crime bill gun provisions.
The struggle over those provisions proved anticlimactic given the en-
ergy and momentum of the march. On May 16, two days after the event
on the Mall, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle attempted to bring a
vote on attaching such provisions to the military construction appropri-
ations bill. His effort was blocked by Republicans, and instead he offered
a nonbinding resolution endorsing the Million Mom March and calling
for action on the stalled conference report. This resolution was to be the
denouement of the march. Following two days of especially acrimonious
debate in the Senate, the Senate voted 50 to 49 in favor of the Daschle
resolution,and69to30foracompetingRepublicanresolutionendorsing
milderproposals.Thisvoteendedactionontheguncontrolamendments
for the 106th Congress, providing nothing more than an opportunity for
gun control legislators to vote their positions and endorse the march.
The Moms had succeeded at the immediate goal of mobilizing a large
number of citizens into political engagement on gun control, but had
failed at the ultimate goal of changing public policy.

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