ASHINGTON - In a last-ditch attempt to wrest tougher gun-control legislation out of Congress before it adjourns, Vice President Al Gore joined top Democratic lawmakers yesterday in accusing Republican leaders of being beholden to the National Rifle Association.
Citing shootings this week in Seattle and Honolulu, Gore and the lawmakers criticized Republicans for not letting House and Senate members reconcile the vastly different gun-control measures each body passed earlier this year.
''How many tragedies does it take before Republican leaders bottling up this legislation get the message?'' Gore asked at a Capitol Hill news conference.
Flanked by leading congressional gun-control proponents, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, Gore accused Republicans of ''frustrating the will of the American people by refusing to take up legislation that the American people support.''
Democrats want new gun laws to, among other things, require background checks for people buying firearms at gun shows and ban the importation of large-capacity ammunition clips. Those provisions were included in a juvenile justice bill passed by the Senate not long after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, but not in legislation passed by the House.
Lawmakers from both bodies met once last summer in an effort to reconcile the bills. They have not met since, Gore said, because GOP leaders do not want to force House members to choose between their constituents and the NRA.
''The time has come to hold them accountable for not acting,'' said Gore, hinting at the role the issue will play in next year's election.
It is doubtful, however, if any new gun law would have prevented the shooting Tuesday at a Xerox office in Hawaii, which has the nation's strictest gun laws. Hawaii is the only state to require firearms to be licensed and registered, is one of seven states that has banned handguns known as ''Saturday night specials,'' and has a 14-day waiting period.
NRA president Charlton Heston criticized the Clinton administration's push for new gun laws. Testifying before the House Government and Reform Committee, Heston dismissed such laws as a ''placebo.''
