WASHINGTON - The 30th anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan is Wednesday. Gun-control advocates, including Reagan's wounded press secretary, Jim Brady, will use the day to launch a renewed push for curbs on guns.
Once again, chances are they won't get very far.
The public is sharply divided, largely along geographic lines, on gun control. Gun-rights groups, led by the National Rifle Association, dramatically outspend gun-control organizations on campaign donations and lobbying.
President Obama, though he urged gun-control action in an essay March 13 in the Arizona Daily Star, hasn't made a strong push. Congress is unlikely to tackle the divisive issue.
"People are sensitive to the issue of gun violence because of the shooting (on Jan. 8 of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) ... but the gun issue is down on Congress' list of priorities, given high unemployment and two and a half wars," said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a center-left policy-research center.
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Giffords, D-Ariz., is "the most prominent victim since Reagan," noted Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Tucson incident, combined with the Reagan anniversary, gives gun-control advocates a fresh platform.
Brady and his wife, Sarah, plan to visit the White House on Tuesday and Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby for tighter curbs on firearms.
"I think prospects are better than you're probably hearing," Sarah Brady said Monday. But she conceded "there's an awful lot on everybody's schedule, and their thoughts right now are often elsewhere."
That's nothing new. Other than the 1993 "Brady Bill," which requires background checks for handgun or long-gun purchasers from federally licensed gun dealers, "not much has been done in the last 30 years," Helmke said.
A Pew Research Center poll taken Aug. 25-Sept. 6 found that in the East, 60 percent favored gun control while 36 percent supported gun rights. In the Midwest, 52 percent backed gun rights, and 44 percent preferred gun control. The tally was 61 percent to 36 percent for gun rights in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Urban Democrats are the most vocal gun-control advocates, but the national party has shied away from any major push.
Sarah Brady said that she and her husband "we want to shore up the Democrats first. When you go and visit with members of Congress, a lot of them know it's the right thing to do, but they don't want to face voting for it."
NRA officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
