-Caveat Lector- House approves school display of Ten Commandments By DAVID ESPO The Associated Press 06/17/99 10:13 PM Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) -- Searching for a way to curb youth violence, the House approved legislation Thursday night permitting the Ten Commandments to be posted in schools and other state and local facilities and moved toward a showdown over gun control. The vote was 287-139 for the anti-violence measure, which includes a variety of get-tough provisions related to juvenile crime as well as the declaration permitting states to display the Biblical commandments. Critics said that measure was unconstitutional, but its sponsor, Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., countered that it would "promote morality and work toward an end of children killing children." Earlier, in a second victory for the entertainment industry in as many days, the House rejected a proposal to require labeling of violent content in entertainment products such as video games. For the second night in a row, lawmakers worked late into the evening fashioning their response to shootings at a Colorado high school and elsewhere. Repeatedly, lawmakers in both parties lamented cases of "children killing children." Other provisions in the bill would toughen penalties for juvenile offenders, make it easier to try some juveniles as adults and require federal prosecutors to devote increased time and money to pursuing gun-related crimes. The legislation envisions the federal government spending $1.5 billion over the next three years in grants to states to help combat juvenile crime. In addition, the measure explicitly permits religious symbols to be included in the design of a memorial on any public school campus to commemorate anyone slain there. That provision was offered by Rep. Thomas Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who represents the area where this spring's shootings occurred. Passage led immediately to debate of a companion bill on gun control, the focus of a pitched political battle between the forces of the White House and gun control on one side and the National Rifle Association on the other. "We lost more kids yesterday because of school violence than we lost in Kosovo and Bosnia put together the last three years," said Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, citing statistics that show 13 children die each day because of youth violence. Earlier, Gephardt paid grudging respect to the work of the NRA. "I'm in admiration of what they're able to do," he said at a news conference, referring to an organization that has poured an estimated $14 million into political campaigns in the past decade. "You've got members (of Congress) who are looking at a big independent expenditure that can be run against them, at votes that can be implemented against them" if they defy the organization's wishes, he added. For its part, the NRA issued a letter to members of the House detailing its position on a variety of proposed amendments. It said it "very strongly supports" a provision advanced by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., which it said "does not include any gun control provisions." Dingell's proposal would curtail existing requirements for sales at gun shows, partly by redefining a gun show, and partly by giving the government only 24 hours to complete a background check, rather than the current three business days. An alternative, backed by the White House, would retain the provisions approved by the Senate last month. They would require mandatory background checks for all purchases at gun shows, closing what supporters said was a loophole left in the 1993 Brady Bill. In addition, votes were expected on proposals to require that a safety device be sold with all handguns, to raise the minimum age for purchase of a handgun from 18 to 21 and to ban the importation of high capacity ammunition clips. Lawmakers and aides in both parties agreed the outcome was virtually impossible to predict, and that in the end, it was possible that nothing would command a majority on final passage. As an indication of the uncertainty, Dingell told reporters that even if his NRA-backed gun show proposal passed, he would probably oppose final passage of the measure if it contained any other gun control provision. Even if those additional provisions fail in the House, he said "I might" vote against his own bill on final passage. The vote on the Ten Commandments was largely along party lines, with 203 Republicans and 45 Democrats in favor and 164 Democrats, one independent and 15 Republicans against. Aderholt said the commandments "represent the very cornerstone of Western civilization and the basis of our legal system here in America." But Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., countered that the proposal sought "to elevate one particular religion over all others," an effort that he said was "blatantly unconstitutional." The Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky state law that required posting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, ruling that the postings would violate the constitutionally required separation of government and religion. Aderholt's amendment gives states permission to decide whether the commandments can be displayed in public facilities. It comes several years after a celebrated case in Alabama in which a local judge tried to hang the commandments in his courtroom but was ordered to remove them. The proposal for labeling video games and other forms of entertainment was advanced by Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., both of whom argued that the government requires labeling on food, and should do likewise on sources of violence. "Children are killing children," Wamp said. "I've had enough of it. I'm going to side with parents today. I'm going to side with children today, not some big special interest with a bunch of money," he said in a reference to the entertainment industry. The vote against the labeling proposal was 266-161. On Wednesday, the entertainment industry successfully turned back a proposal by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., to curtail access of youth to explicit sexual or violent material in books, movies and other forms of modern-day culture. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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