Bush Advocates No New Gun Controls : Wife Had Disagreed With President, a Lifetime NRA Member

WASHINGTON — President Bush is not advocating tighter gun controls to cope with the threat from semiautomatic assault weapons like the one used in the massacre of five children in a California schoolyard, the White House said today.

“We don’t have any proposals for changing gun control laws,” said White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

Bush’s wife, Barbara, said in a recent interview with the Associated Press that she is afraid of guns and “absolutely” believes that assault weapons should be outlawed.

Bush, a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., the nation’s chief gun lobby, has steadfastly resisted tighter gun controls. Last year he opposed a bill in Congress to require a seven-day waiting period before the purchase of guns.

Bush’s position on guns was outlined during a White House briefing as District of Columbia’s homicide toll for the year reached 75, after a record 372 slayings in 1988.

“Everyone in the country, including the President, is outraged by the homicides, whether it be in Washington, D.C., or California or anywhere else,” Fitzwater said in response to reporters’ questions.

“There are any number of appropriate solutions to this kind of problem. The most obvious is for stepped-up law enforcement, but I know that everyone shares those concerns,” the spokesman said.

“It does pose a major challenge to the law enforcement community in this country, and there are a lot of ways you can come at that, but we don’t have any comment on specific episodes,” Fitzwater added.

A gunman used a Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifle in a rampage in Stockton, Calif., in which five children were killed and 29 others were wounded.