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But Tancredo doesn't see additional gun laws as the answer. "If you actually asked the people of the 6th Congressional District in Colorado if they believe that the major issue at Columbine was the issue of firearms and their availability, I think that they would say, 'no,'" he says.

Denver Post's Brown agrees. "The major response to Columbine is still 'What's wrong with the kids?' It wasn't so much gun control as it was kid control."

But as Toltz points out, "There's a feeling -- and I think everybody still has this feeling -- that we have to do something. We don't know what, but we have to do something."

For Toltz and DeGette, gun control is one answer. For Tancredo it isn't.

A week after the shootings, Tancredo introduced a bill condemning the tragedy and offering Congress' condolences to the victims and their families.

"I hope with all my heart, and pray to the ever-living God that he give me, and my colleagues, and my community and the culture the wisdom to know what actions we individually can take so as to avoid a tragedy like this ever happening again. I pray for that wisdom," Tancredo said on the floor of the House.

Others pressed for more than prayer. On June 18, the House debated the Mandatory Gun Show Background Check Act. The bill as it stood -- offered by Judiciary Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., a longtime moderate on guns -- would have required that background checks be conducted on firearms purchasers at gun shows, allowing up to 72 hours for law enforcement to conduct such a check before the gun could be sold.

Gun shows -- such as the one where guns used in the Columbine shootings were purchased -- are currently exempt from background check requirements. Licensed dealers at gun shows have to conduct background checks, but unlicensed dealers are exempt.

Since background checks were instituted nationally in 1994, more than 470,000 people -- almost 75 percent of whom were convicted felons -- have been prevented from purchasing firearms. And while most gun purchases are approved immediately under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, established on Dec, 1, 1998, roughly 5 percent require further investigation -- which no doubt causes some gun buyers an inconvenience.

Most of the June 18 House debate centered around a confrontation that pitted an amendment offered by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., whose husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, against one offered by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and backed by the NRA.

McCarthy's amendment would have extended the 72-hour background check period to three business days to ensure that state and federal law enforcement agencies were open so that the responsible parties could conduct the background check.

Dingell's amendment would have reduced the background check period to 24 hours -- codifying a pre-existing loophole, since many gun shows take place on the weekend when federal and state agencies are closed.

Though it was sold as a moderate alternative to McCarthy's amendment, the NRA, Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and NRA award-winner Rep. Bob Barr all supported the Dingell amendment, which would have created nothing more than the appearance of action. So did Tom Tancredo.

Hyde's bill, however, contained gun control provisions that made gun enthusiasts uncomfortable -- including a ban on the sale of assault rifles to children under 18 years old and the importation of certain ammunition clips. Though House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., personally voiced support for passage of the bill, the GOP leadership as an official entity didn't decide to support the bill until "late in the game," according to one House GOP leadership source.

"Leadership made the decision that it wanted the bill to pass," says the source, "they wanted to put the issue behind us. But the lobbying and whip effort came kind of late."

Arguing that it didn't go far enough -- and not wanting to let the Republicans off the hook -- Democrats started voting "no" on final passage. As they watched Democrats abandoning ship, Republicans decided to do so as well.

"Five minutes into the vote, it was apparent that the bill was going down big-time," says the leadership source. "So Republicans said, 'Well, leadership wants us to vote yes, but this is going down big so we might as well vote no.' The left and right extremes on gun issues came together in a confused alliance."

All of the Republicans in the Colorado delegation -- except for Tancredo -- voted against the bill.

"There was all along a sort of understanding that Tancredo had a unique situation," the GOP leadership source says, characterizing the message from the GOP House leadership to Tancredo as, "'Hey, you do whatever you've got to do, whatever you think is best, you go ahead and do.'"

The bill died. But Tancredo had managed to earn a headline that worked for him -- and he didn't have to have a hand in passing one of the gun laws he so ardently opposes.

"Divided House rejects gun bill," read the next day's Denver Post. "State delegation votes 'no' by 5 to 1."

Tancredo had his cover; he was the "1."

But there were two other insightful votes made by Tancredo that day. Joining forces with the NRA, he supported an amendment by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, exempting pawnshops from the act and another by Rep. Virgil Goode, D-Va., that would have repealed a ban on handguns in the District of Columbia.

Next page | Politicizing Columbine