By Lawrence M. O'Rourke -- Bee Washington Bureau - (Published June 20, 2002)

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain often has been an irritant to fellow Republicans, leading the fight for campaign finance reform, criticizing them for pork-barrel spending and unsuccessfully challenging George Bush in a hard-fought 2000 White House campaign.

Now the Arizona senator is at it again, but this time he's also making the Democrats nervous. He's teaming up with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., on an issue that both parties fear may be too hot and time-consuming to handle only a few months before the midterm congressional election: Gun control.

McCain wants to require criminal background checks on all firearms transactions at the 4,500 gun shows held each year in the United States.

"It just makes no sense to allow criminals and terrorists to evade background checks at a time when we are tightening homeland security," McCain said.

But the senator has come under pressure from both Democratic and Republican leaders to let the bill lie dormant until after the election and congressional approval of President Bush's plan for reorganizing the government to enhance homeland security, according to Senate sources.

"Outside urban areas, gun control is a kiss-of-death issue for Democrats," said Joseph Di-Sarro, political scientist at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa.

"The gun show loophole needs to be addressed, but Democrats don't want to vote for it because it would take away attention from the domestic issues that are working for them," DiSarro said.

There were indications Wednesday that McCain may be backing away from pressing the issue this year. The senator's press spokesman said McCain has not made a decision on when and how he will ask the Senate to vote on his plan.

Previously, McCain suggested he would make such a move before the July 4 recess.

McCain has argued that his bill would be a major step toward ending the sale of weapons to terrorists, as well as ordinary criminals, by closing a loophole in federal law that permits sales at gun shows without a background check.

The National Rifle Association responded that the McCain camp is "exploiting the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11" and has "shamelessly attempted to deceive the American public into believing that terrorists ... are shopping at your local gun shows right alongside law-abiding hunters, collectors and those interested in personal protection."

Even supporters of the McCain proposal agree that the legislation almost certainly won't go anywhere this session, which is set to expire in early October.

In the meantime, Congress has its plate full with the Bush anti-terrorism plan and a slew of spending bills needed to keep the federal government operating beyond the close of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

But the McCain bill has received attention because it could force a vote in the Senate that would be awkward both for advocates and opponents of closing the gun-show loophole.

For congressional supporters of stricter gun control, mostly Democrats, the bill could generate a campaign issue that might disrupt the Democrat's core campaign theme. Democrats want to tell voters that Republicans have defaulted on a social agenda of prescription drug coverage, a patients bill of rights, aid to education and protection of Social Security.

On the other hand, political analysts say that Senate Republicans running for re-election don't want to vote against legislation that McCain contends would help keep guns out of the hands of terrorists.