Gun control group paints a bull's-eye on Bill McCollum

By ADAM C. SMITH

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 12, 2000

When Handgun Control Inc. was considering candidates to oppose, leaders say their first major target was a no-brainer: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill McCollum.

"He's been a leading, leading opponent of common sense gun laws," Joe Sudbay, political director of the gun control advocacy group, said of the Republican congressman from Longwood. "Because of his position on the Judiciary Committee, he's done more to undermine gun laws than practically any member of Congress."

In its first major TV ad campaign against a Senate or congressional candidate, the gun control advocacy group is spending about $250,000 to attack McCollum for opposing bills to close the gun show "loophole" that allows non-dealers to sell firearms without criminal background checks. The ads, running throughout this week in Tampa Bay and West Palm Beach, attempt to paint McCollum as out of step with the vast majority of Floridians.

"In 1998, you said you wanted Florida's gun show loophole closed. But Bill McCollum listened to the gun lobby again and voted against closing the gun show loophole. And now Bill McCollum is gunning for the U.S. Senate and wants your vote. Why vote for him when he keep voting against you?" the narrator sternly asks, as footage shows a firing handgun and pictures of Bill McCollum.

McCollum calls the ads a distortion.

He says he supports closing the gun show loophole but felt the restrictions imposed by a Democrat-sponsored bill would have closed down gun shows altogether. In fact, McCollum opposed a National Rifle Association-backed bill that would have allowed no more than 24 hours to approve a gun sale and instead proposed giving up to 72 hours for background checks.

"For me, it's always been a matter of what is reasonable," McCollum said of his gun control stances. He said he told the NRA that its position on background checks at gun shows is "not defensible."

McCollum has consistently earned strong endorsements from the NRA, though he accepts no money from the group. He has been a key player in gun control debates over the years, helping derail early efforts to pass the Brady Bill, which requires background checks and waiting periods for all handgun purchases. He also led an unsuccessful effort in 1996 to repeal the ban on assault weapons.

As his Senate campaign approached, though, McCollum has not always been so hard-line. In the past 11/2 years, he supported requiring trigger locks to be sold with handguns, limiting the kinds of guns juveniles can possess and opposed repealing restrictive gun laws in Washington, D.C.

Only last May the group Gun Owners of America wrote members that McCollum was betraying gun rights advocates.

"On the subject of gun rights, McCollum's voting record is now closer to that of the notoriously anti-gun Chuck Schumer of New York," GOA executive director Larry Pratt warned members in a letter. "And McCollum has increasingly distanced himself from real pro-gunners like Rep. Joe Scarborough (of Pensacola)."

Gun Owners of America touts itself as the "no-compromise" gun lobby and criticizes the NRA for being too soft on gun control matters. Pratt in 1996 stepped down as a leader in Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign because of alleged ties to white supremacist and militia groups.

"There are many (members of Congress) who support us more consistently, but Bill McCollum generally shares the views of our members," said Chuck Cunningham, the NRA's director of federal affairs.

Sudbay of Handgun Control said McCollum's voting record on bills before the entire House are sometimes not as significant as how he handles bills before the House Judiciary Committee, on which he sits.

McCollum, for instance, last week stressed to reporters that he has always voted to ban armor-piercing "cop-killer" bullets. He did co-sponsor a 1985 ban on such bullets, but in 1995 he voted against expanding the list of banned armor-piercing bullets when it was proposed in the Judiciary Committee. A campaign spokeswoman said he opposed the amendment on procedural grounds.

McCollum's chief opponent for Connie Mack's seat, Democratic Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson, has also jumped on McCollum's gun control record. While Nelson does not always agree with gun control advocates -- he voted with McCollum in 1986 to weaken gun control laws, for instance, and opposes both licensing and registration of guns -- he portrays McCollum as a gun rights extremist.

When both served in Congress together in the 1980s, Nelson supported various bills that called for waiting periods on handgun purchases as well as assault weapons bans, and McCollum opposed them. Nelson said he also would have supported the Brady Bill and gun show bills McCollum opposed.

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