`Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition'' is the capsule description of the gun policy of George W. Bush. While he gets queasy when the National Rifle Association accuses Bill Clinton of outright murder and mayhem, the Texas governor is foursquare in favor of packing heat in your pocket, purse, waistband, or ankle holster.
Trying to make the best of a loser hand on gun control, Bush played the ''character education'' card yesterday in a Texas elementary school memorial service commemorating the 13 Columbine students and two teachers slain a year ago. Bush, who believes that the government cannot be trusted with your tax money or your census, suggested that the government be responsible for ''character education'' in public schools.
That's how best to curb school and workplace massacres, the Republican candidate for president said. Bush is also for a lifetime ban on gun possession for every juvenile offender, which sounds tough until you realize how hard it is to enforce a law like that.
They already have ''character education'' in Texas schools. And since his state has something approaching 150,000 of the nearly 2 million convicts imprisoned in the United States, they might want to reexamine this ''character education'' approach.
With a school or workplace shooting somewhere in the United States nearly every week, gun control may be a bigger factor in the November election than ever before. Vice President Gore wants photo licenses for gun buyers and a paper trail on every gun sold. Gore would prevent people from buying more than one gun a month and make them wait three days for that.
Like Bush, Gore grew up in a rural, progun state, but he's moved leftward more nimbly than Bush, whose campaign depends on shoving him closer to the middle on issues.
In his first term as governor, Bush signed a ''right to carry'' law that made it legal in Texas to carry a concealed handgun. Three years ago he made it even easier to carry a concealed firearm by amending the part of the law that barred concealed guns in churches and synagogues that don't post signs asking you to park your heat at the door. Now you can pray in Texas if you're packing.
The gun issue is a classic case of the Democrats marching faster to the pace of social change while Republicans cling to the old traditions.
Gore, with some enthusiasm, and Bush, dragging his cowboy boots in the dust, both support the current ban on assault weapons like the murder weapons used at Columbine. And both support instant background checks at gunshow sales, bans on juveniles owning assault weapons, import of high-capacity ammo clips, and raising the legal age for possessing a handgun from 18 to 21. During the primary season, Bush said initially he was for ''voluntary'' efforts to install trigger locks on handguns.
Later he modified that to say he'd sign a law requiring trigger locks to be sold with new handguns. Bush vows more money to enforce existing gun laws, and he'd require jail time for young gun offenders. A Pew Research poll gave Gore a marginal edge on Bush when voters were asked whom they trusted more on gun issues (Gore 41 percent, Bush 37), and the Democrats edged Republicans 36-30 on the same question.
Approximately four times every hour, another American falls dead to gun violence. Of those who get shot and survive, their individual medical treatment costs on average $145,000. It's estimated that gun violence costs $20 billion a year in medical expenses and lost productivity. We have stricter laws on cars, lawn mowers, and chainsaws than on guns in some respects.
Eight times every day, a young person perishes by gun. The video of the Columbine kids fleeing their two murderous classmates is all over TV these days.
Bush should carry most of the rural Western and Southern states where gun control is unpopular with conservative legislators and NRA types. Gore will carry the Northeast, California, and traditionally Democratic enclaves like West Virginia, which is progun but votes Democrat for president.
The swing voters in the swing states will determine the election if things go according to form. Those are the 20 percent of the voters in states like Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey who are weak on party identification.
The women among them are liable to be more for Gore than Bush, and guns play a big role with motivating that subgroup. The men among the undecided tend, like most male voters, to be more pro-Bush than pro-Gore. Then there is another set of odds that must be factored in. That is the likelihood that there will be several more multiple shooting deaths between now and Nov. 7.
It is very bad news that those are very good odds.
David Nyhan is a Globe columnist.
