WASHINGTON -- Hours after another school shooting, Democratic gun control advocates in the Senate scored a major political victory yesterday as Vice President Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote for a measure to impose stricter curbs on gun show purchases.
The success of the Democratic measure -- aided by the support of six Republicans -- was capped last night by a 73-25 vote of bipartisan Senate approval for an overall juvenile crime bill to which the gun show curbs were attached.
The $5 billion legislation, packed with an array of approaches for combating teen violence, would make it easier to prosecute youthful offenders as adults, provide new money for juvenile courts and prevention programs, and commission a study of the effects of violence in the entertainment industry on child development.
Yesterday's moment of high drama -- with nearly all 100 senators clustered around clerks, tallying the 51-50 vote -- marked only the fourth time that Gore has had to exercise his constitutional privilege as vice president to break a Senate tie.
The Senate action came on a day that a 15-year-old boy shot and wounded six students at his high school in Conyers, Ga. And it came exactly one month after the school massacre in Littleton, Colo., focused attention on teen violence and gave momentum to gun control advocates.
"We are reminded again by the fresh tragedy today that until we get more control in a sensible way on the availability of guns in our society, these tragedies will continue," Gore said, savoring the chance to seize the moment on a popular issue and perhaps give his lackluster presidential campaign a boost.
Congressional action now shifts to the House, where Republican leaders canceled two committee voting sessions yesterday at which Democrats, including Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Southern Maryland, had planned to offer gun control proposals.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, promised the Democrats a chance to debate and vote on gun control issues by mid-June. But gun control advocates say they might try to press the issue sooner.
Senate Republican leaders, who had failed to keep members from defecting during two weeks of often anguished debate on the bill, said the gun-related measures approved yesterday would have little effect on youth violence.
