Most Dems Mum on Gun Control

Murphy: Massacre could have been avoided if leaders stood up to gun lobby
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2007 9:14 AM CDT
Most Dems Mum on Gun Control
Students console each other after a memorial service at War Memorial Chapel near Norris Hall, the site of a shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007. A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday,...   (Associated Press)

Grief over the Virginia Tech massacre is re-energizing gun control advocates like Rep. Carolyn Murphy, whose husband was shot dead in 1996. "For too long, Congress has stood idle while gun violence continues to take its toll," she said yesterday. But most Dems have studiously avoided the hot-button issue, which the party sees as political suicide.

Not one of the front-running Democratic candidates for president has touched the topic, even as the Republican triumvirate tripped over each other to reaffirm that they don't want new gun laws. Some think gun control will emerge as a major campaign issue as the effect of the shootings sink in. (More gun control stories.)

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