uExpress.com: As I See It by Cynthia Tucker -- (09/17/1999) IT'S TIME FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO DEBATE GUN CONTROL

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09/17/1999

IT'S TIME FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO DEBATE GUN CONTROL

This time, a massacre by a madman didn't even dominate the news. A hurricane -- the restless savagery of nature, not the brutal tendencies of man -- ruled the headlines and broadcasts. Another armed lunatic on another shooting rampage has become too much a routine feature of American life to divert us or shock us or horrify us.

Even the setting of Larry Gene Ashbrook's rampage, a prayer service at a Baptist church, does not stand out as original in the annals of evil. Just six months ago, Shon Miller was charged with opening fire during a midweek Bible study at a Baptist church in Gonzales, La., killing three, including his wife and child, and wounding others.

Ashbrook took his bloodthirst to the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, where he fatally shot seven people -- three adults and four teen-agers -- and wounded seven others before turning a gun on himself.

Spewing hateful insults about "the Baptist religion" as he burst through the doors of the sanctuary, Ashbrook was carrying two semiautomatic handguns, a 9-mm Ruger and a .380-caliber AMT, as well as at least 10 Ruger ammunition clips, authorities said.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who indulges the Wild West swagger in which his state wraps itself, was quick to claim that limiting guns would not curb these bloody assaults on our schools, our churches, our workplaces. "I don't know of a law -- a government law -- that will put love in people's hearts," he said.

The governor was right about our hearts but wrong about our firearms. Statistics back up what common sense suggests: Countries with few guns have fewer gun deaths. While we lack the power to change evil intentions, we do have the capacity to curb the firepower that makes it easy for evil to have its way.

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As the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, Bush knows that his gun politics put him in a difficult position. In 1995, he signed a law that allows Texans to carry concealed weapons. (Incredibly, there are those who argue that if every worshipper had been armed, the Fort Worth massacre would have been prevented.) Earlier this year, he signed another law that bars cities in Texas from suing the gun industry.

Most Americans, however, favor more restrictions on firearms. According to a Time/CNN poll conducted in July, 76 percent of Americans favor registration of all handguns. More to the point politically, 59 percent said they'd be more likely to vote for a candidate who favors stricter gun-control laws. Asked whether they had more confidence in Democrats or Republicans on gun control, 41 percent cited Democrats, while 32 percent pointed to Republicans.

So let's fight it out (if you'll forgive the language). Here, for a change, is a legitimate issue over which there is a distinct difference between the leading GOP contender and the two leading Democrats, Bill Bradley and Al Gore. Both Bradley and Gore favor tougher gun laws. So rather than debate rumors of Bush's youthful cocaine use or Gore's woodenness and lack of warmth, we can talk about an issue that strikes at the heart of what all of us hold dear: personal safety and the safety of our loved ones.

It's about time that the carnage caused by firearms became a central subject in a presidential campaign. And it appears that armed madmen will make sure it stays on the agenda, if we don't get too bored by the carnage to even notice.