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Smith relentsa bit ongun law Urges approval ofbackground checks By JOHN HUGHES The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Sen. Gordon Smith retreated Thursday from his vote against a gun control measure and tried to persuade his colleagues to reconsider background checks at gun shows. Smith, R-Ore., said he and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were drafting bill language that would instruct Attorney General Janet Reno to craft regulations calling for background checks at gun shows. "If a gun is transacted at a gun show, there should be a background check -- that is not a huge imposition on the Second Amendment," Smith said. On Wednesday, Smith voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues to reject, 51-47, a measure by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that would have imposed mandatory background checks on private sales of guns at gun shows. Smith said the Lautenberg language was too broad, so much so that even hotel owners who rent rooms to people attending a gun show could be held liable for failing to do a background check. "That goes too far," he said. Smith's Oregon colleague, Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden, supported the Lautenberg amendment because "he does not feel it violates the Second Amendment," spokesman David Seldin said. Smith's statements came as President Clinton urged the Senate to reconsider its decision against requiring background checks of all firearm sales at gun shows. Reno also blasted the Senate gun-control vote in some of the strongest language she has ever used about congressional actions. After rejecting Lautenberg's proposal, senators instead voted 53-45 for voluntary background checks proposed in an amendment supported by the National Rifle Association. The legislation Smith and McCain are seeking would be attached to a $5 billion juvenile violence bill sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. The bill by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman would toughen prosecution laws governing juvenile crime, giving prosecutors more funds and making it easier for them to try suspects as young as 14 as adults. Smith and Wyden also expect to attach an amendment that encourages states to require that students who bring guns to school be held for at least 24 hours. The amendment, when drafted last year, was a response to the May 1998 shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., that left two dead and 22 wounded. Kip Kinkel, the accused shooter, had been arrested the day before the killings for having a gun at school. Police decided he wasn't a threat, however, and released him to his parents. Prosecutors said Kinkel shot his parents to death at home before he went to school and opened fire. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA