ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole stepped back from his pledge to push for repeal of the ban on assault-style weapons Tuesday.
Making his fourth Virginia campaign stop, Dole staked out a moderate stance on the emotional issue of gun control by declining to adopt absolutist views on either side. Dole used Virginia's "Insta-check" system of conducting background checks on firearm purchasers as a backdrop to propose the system nationwide.
``I am a strong believer in the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,'' Dole told about 200 invited guests at Virginia's State Police training center. ``But everyone understands that some people must not own guns, either because they have forfeited the right or for a variety of other common-sense reasons.
``There's no good reason why we can't have a system like Virginia's at the federal level."
Dole used the gathering of government and law enforcement officials to call for a national computer network to check potential firearms purchasers nationwide for felony convictions, dishonorable military discharges or other disqualifiers.
Then Dole seemed to retreat from a promise he made last year to have a repeal of the assault-style weapons ban ``on the president's desk'' by the end of the summer.
``Let's be realistic,'' Dole said. ``Of the 17 weapons that were specifically outlawed, 11 are already back on the market in some other form. We've moved beyond the debate over banning assault weapons. Instead of endlessly debating which guns to ban, we ought to be emphasizing what works.''
Nelson Warfield, Dole's press secretary, later said Dole's remarks meant that repealing the assault weapons ban ``will not be on his agenda and he will focus on what works.'' An example: Virginia's computerized background-check network, which was demonstrated for Dole Tuesday, has denied the sale of some 10,000 firearms since its implementation seven years ago.
But while viewed as a type of gun control - the background-check system would affect the purchase of any type of firearm - Dole's commitment to the system was not likely to pacify his anti-gun critics. Use of the system can exempt states from the five-day waiting period for handgun purchases required in the federal Brady law.
Sarah Brady, who heads a gun control lobbying group in Washington, countered that Dole's proposal would "destroy the Brady law, not improve it" because the waiting period serves as a cooling-off time for would-be criminals.
"When Bob Dole calls for a national instant check system, he is speaking for the National Rifle Association, not for the American people," she said in a news release. "Most Americans, including most gun owners, favor a background check and a waiting period."
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Bob Dole endorses a background check for gunby CNBpurchases. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT