WASHINGTON, May 13 -- President Clinton saluted thousands of mothers readying themselves Saturday for the Mother's Day Million Mom March in Washington and some 70 other U.S. cities in a call for gun control legislation.
"The Million Mom March is already a success, before anyone takes the first step," Clinton said. "They're letting the gun lobby know it is no match for America's moms."
The president and first lady Hilary Rodham Clinton plan to hold a White House rally for marchers Sunday ahead of other demonstrations in Washington, where mothers and their supporters have been gathering for days preparing for the event.
The marching moms are calling on Congress to act on gun control legislation stalled in a joint House-Senate committee chaired by Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah. Hatch's committee is considering two versions of gun control legislation passed in the wake of a teenkilling spree in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999. The House bill deals with juvenile crime in general; the Senate bill calls for a number of new gun-control measures, including background checks at gun shows, child safety locks and a ban on high-capacity ammunition clips.
Hatch has refused to open committee meetings to draft compromise legislation since the measures passed, saying sideline compromises must be made or the lawmakers will deadlock over the heated issue.
Clinton and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill have repeatedly called on Hatch to convene the committee, but the Utah Republican has remained resolute.
Clinton said the mass march would send a powerful political message to the gun control movement.
"If the moms stick with it, they will succeed," Clinton said. "They will make America a safer, more humane nation."
The Mother's Day march has drawn support from Republican figures who have fought the administration's efforts on gun control.
Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson welcomed Sunday's march, saying Republicans share mothers' concerns.
"We want all Americans, especially our children, to feel safe when they walk the streets and go to school," Nicholson said in a statement released Saturday.
Nicholson said the answer to gun violence was more vigorous prosecution of gun crimes under existing laws, not new gun control legislation. He said the Clinton administration had failed to enforce laws that deal with the concerns voiced by the Mother's Day Marchers.
"Over the last seven years, prosecutions of criminals who use guns during crimes have fallen by nearly 40 percent," Nicholson said. "Last year alone, more than 6,000 kids brought guns to school, yet only 13 were prosecuted.Since the inception of the Brady Law, 500,000 criminals have illegally tried to purchase guns, yet not a single one has been prosecuted."
The National Rifle Association has made the same argument repeatedly, in fighting against the Clinton administration's gun control efforts.
