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Hyde offers gun-control compromise

Assault weapon possession by minors would be illegal

September 22, 1999
Web posted at: 12:18 a.m. EDT (0418 GMT)

From congressional correspondent Bob Franken

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top congressional aides tell CNN that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Illinois), is circulating a compromise gun-control proposal that would set up a system of background checks for sales at gun shows.

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Hyde is considering whether to make his proposal public -- perhaps as early as Wednesday.

Under Hyde's two-tiered plan, anyone who buys a weapon at gun shows would have to wait for a 24-hour background check. If that check was not completed after 24 hours, the period would be extended to three days. Hyde describes a "gun show" as an event involving five or more gun merchants.

As part of the Juvenile Justice bill, the Senate included gun-control provisions that would have specified three days for background checks. After an uproar from gun-control opponents, House Republicans shaved that to 24 hours.

Gun-control advocates said the 24-hour background check was inadequate and dropped it from the House version of the Juvenile Justice legislation. Efforts to reconcile the two measures have been stalled.

Hyde's proposal also imposes a ban on the import of large ammunition clips, and a requirement that child-safety devices be sold with handguns. It also would ban the sale of handguns to anyone convicted, as a juvenile, of a gun-related felony. Possession of assault weapons by minors would be illegal.

Hyde has described his compromise to Democratic and Republican leaders of the House as well as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). He is awaiting their responses.

So far, no new meeting has been scheduled of the conference committee that must reconcile the differences between the different versions of the Juvenile Justice bills.

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Wednesday, September 22, 1999






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