WASHINGTON - President Clinton offered a compromise Friday on background checks for gun purchases, a move he called ''a gesture of good faith'' designed to revive negotiations with Congress on his stalled gun safety legislation.
In a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., Clinton proposed retaining records from background checks for 90 days, rather than the current 180 days.
''As a gesture of good faith, I am willing to meet you halfway on this important issue,'' Clinton said. I hope this step will help break the current logjam, and bring your colleagues back to the conference table.''
Hyde, away from Congress for the Easter holiday recess, was not immediately available for comment. However, the National Rifle Association said Clinton's proposal was unacceptable.
''The law specifically states that the records are to be destroyed,'' said NRA spokesman Bill Powers. ''Once a lawful citizen has been cleared through this check, it should not be the federal government's business to be keeping files.''
Clinton proposed legislation tightening restrictions on guns last year, shortly after two teen-agers shot 13 people and themselves to death at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
A House-Senate conference committee has been assigned to reconcile differences between a Senate-passed version that would set a 72-hour background check on gun-show sales and a House bill that shrank the wait to 24 hours.
But the committee has met only once, in August, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has not scheduled another meeting. Clinton has blamed the delay on pressure tactics from the NRA. In turn, the NRA accused the Clinton administration of being too lax in enforcing current gun laws.
Last week, the president made road trips to support state-based gun measures in Maryland and Colorado, and Hyde suggested that background check waiting periods apply to potential gun buyers with unresolved arrest records or a history of drug use, mental incapacity, domestic violence or stalking.
In his letter, Clinton discounted Hyde's proposal, saying he feared it would create new loopholes through which criminals could purchase guns. ''Neither of us is interested in a compromise that would serve only to jeopardize public safety and the effectiveness of law enforcement,'' Clinton said.
The president also said he is dismayed that Congress did not act on his proposed gun restrictions by the one-year anniversary of the Columbine shootings, which was Thursday.
''We owe it to the families of Littleton, and the thousands more who lose their lives in gunfire each year in America, to get this done now,'' Clinton said.
