A Long-Sought Advance for a Gun-Control Bid Born of Sorrow

C arolyn McCarthy was a content homemaker and a nurse before gun violence blew up her life. Yesterday, she found a moment of peace when a promising piece of gun-control legislation cleared the House.

Fourteen years ago, the New York Democrat's husband, Dennis, was among six people killed when a deranged gunman opened fire on a Long Island commuter train. Her only child, Kevin, was shot in the head and injured.

From that moment, McCarthy became one of the most vocal advocates of gun control, ultimately deciding to run for Congress in 1994 after her representative voted to repeal the assault weapons ban.

"I thought I'd be here for two years," she said in an interview in her office. "I thought -- one term, I'd do my work, get gun-control legislation started. . . . But it doesn't work that way."

Now in her fifth term, McCarthy can see the light. Spurred by the massacre of 32 people by a gunman at Virginia Tech in April -- and in a rare collaboration with the National Rifle Association -- the House passed legislation that would provide money for states to collect and maintain records on the mentally ill, with penalties if states don't comply.

McCarthy said the bill in essence enforces a 1968 gun-control measure that prohibits the sale of firearms to those adjudicated as mentally ill. She gives major credit to Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), a former NRA board member, for negotiating with the organization, because she was a bit wary.

"When things like Virginia Tech happen, for me it becomes very personal and very emotional," she said. "My whole family goes almost into post-traumatic stress syndrome. It all comes back, the pain and the chaos."

This is McCarthy's fourth try at the bill, which for various reasons never made it through the process. She reintroduced it again in January, and after Virginia Tech, she said, it was on a fast track. She said that though the legislation may not have prevented her husband's shooter from buying a gun, it would have caught Seung Hui Cho, whom a judge had declared mentally ill.

The bill will now head to the Senate, where members seem confident it will pass, potentially making it the first new gun-control law in 13 years. "If I can't pass this bill now, I don't know what I'm doing here," she said.

Is she confident this bill will stop the next shooter?

"Hopefully we'll never know," she said.

Long List to Replace Sen. Thomas

Sen. Craig Thomas was buried in Wyoming on Sunday, and by Monday the race was on.