DENVER — Victims of the Columbine High School shootings officially became political symbols Saturday, held up by gun-control advocates and the National Rifle Association as icons of the groups' conflicting causes.

Cries for stepped-up activism came from both camps — 8,000 protesters who marched from the Capitol to surround the NRA convention hotel in a silent procession, as well as the 3,000 gun owners inside the Adam's Mark hotel for their annual convention.

The stand-off on the polarized issue of gun control came just 11 days after two seniors stormed Columbine High School armed with bombs, sawed-off shotguns, a rifle and a semiautomatic handgun, killing 12 fellow students, a teacher and then themselves. Public outcry about the shootings led the NRA to scale back its planned three-day national convention and weapons expo to a single-day business meeting.

Under cool, gray skies, a quiet, intense crowd eventually swelled to about 8,000, carrying signs reading "Let's cradle children, not Uzis," "Prom or Funeral? You Decide," "Moses Thou Shall Not Kill" — a reference to one of NRA President Charlton Heston's movie roles — and other slogans. Parents held children on their shoulders and in their arms; volunteers sought petition signatures and handed out literature.

But the most heart-grabbing sign featured a large color picture of a blond, teenage boy with blue and silver ribbons on either side of the photo.

"My son Daniel died at Columbine," the poster read. "He'd expect me to be here today."

Tom Mauser drew cheers when he told the crowd, "If my son Daniel was not one of the victims, he would be here with me today.

"It is time we own up to the fact that we have a violence problem in this society," he said. "Something is wrong in this country when a child can grab a gun so easily and shoot a bullet in the middle of a child's face, as my son experienced.

"A TEC-9 semiautomatic weapon that carries 30 bullets, that was used to kill my son, is not used to kill deer. It has no useful purpose."

Families of other victims joined the crowd as well.

Anne Coakley of Boulder was there because her daughter, Tara Coakley, died almost three years ago — shot in the head while watching a movie on a Saturday night by a neighbor cleaning his gun. Holley Haymaker, a Louisiana resident living in Boulder for a year, carried a poster with a picture of Yoshi Hattori, who was a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student when he was shot and killed in Baton Rouge in 1992.

Both women say they see a change in thinking about guns.

Haymaker recalled the address Yoshi's mother gave to those in Baton Rouge. "She got up in our church and said she had compassion for the one who killed her son because he, too, was a victim of the gun culture."

Another Columbine parent, Linda Questa, called for greater political activism.

"We must hold politicians responsible for selling our children's safety in exchange for financial and political support," she said. "We can't afford to lose the memory of Tuesday, April 20. We must change the law or we must change the people who make the laws."

While those at the gun control rally observed a moment of silence at 10 a.m., NRA members lined up, attempting to get into a packed ballroom to hear Heston and others speak. The Adam's Mark Hotel stepped up security considerably for the meeting, with police and hotel workers checking NRA membership cards, media credentials or hotel keys of everyone who wanted to enter the hotel.

Littleton resident Mike Sisbarro, who joined the NRA 45 years ago as a 10-year-old and is a firearms safety instructor, hadn't planned to attend the business meeting, but the Columbine shootings changed his mind.

"I think there's no relationship between what happened at Columbine High School and what the NRA stands for," said Sisbarro, whose six children went to Columbine. "I don't know anyone who's ever done anything improper with a firearm."

Sisbarro and the rest of the standing-room-only crowd offered repeated standing ovations for Heston and for the welcoming speaker, Colorado Secretary of State Vikki Buckley. Both took jabs at Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, who asked the NRA abandon its Denver plans after the Columbine shooting.

"Isn't it ironic that some of those who would have run you out of town wouldn't have been able to vote if we didn't honor all of the Constitution?" Buckley asked, saying Colorado is "a state where some of us believe strongly in the entire Constitution of the United States, including the Second Amendment," guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms.

Invoking the shooting of Isaiah Shoels, reportedly targeted by the Columbine shooters because he was black, Buckley said Americans must fight what she called "new-age hate."

"Guns are not the issue. Hate — what pulled the trigger of violence — is the issue," she said. "When our children leave home for school without a value system, parents have committed a new-age hate crime ... Those who would run the NRA out of town need to look at our own children who are having irresponsible sex and children they can't take care of. Irresponsible sex is a new-age hate crime.

"Raise as much heck about that as you do about the NRA, and you'll save more lives in five years than are taken with guns in a century," she said to a standing ovation.

She noted that according to other students, Shoels' killer called the boy a "nigger" before shooting him. "That is the language of hate and that must go!"

Heston urged the NRA members — mostly white men — to be mindful of the media presence watching over Saturday's convention.

"NRA members are, above all, Americans," he said. "That means that whatever our differences, we are respectful of one another and we stand united — especially in adversity."

And, like the gun-control activists, Heston talked some politics.

"It's not been the NRA pressing for political advantage, calling press conferences to propose vast packages of new legislation," he said.

As Heston spoke, the rally from the Capitol slowly circled the hotel block. Many softly sang "We Shall Overcome."

Before the Columbine shootings, liberalizing gun laws in Colorado had been the most heated topic of debate during the legislative session set to end Wednesday. And though the debate was shelved after Columbine, it is certain to resurface in the next year and during the 2000 election campaign.

"Even on a polarized issue, there are a lot of people that are not polarized, that are swayed by facts and events," said House Minority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, a rally organizer. "I hope the political momentum on this means next year we are debating bills limiting access to guns instead of increasing it."

May 2, 1999

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