UNDER the GUN.

A FIRST-GRADER KILLS ANOTHER FIRST-GRADER IN THE LATEST SCHOOL SHOOTING, WHILE CONGRESS DEBATES TOUGHER GUN LAWS

It was your average Tuesday morning at Theo J. Buell Elementary School, just north of Flint, Michigan. Six-year-old Kayla Renee Rolland was entering the hallway with 22 other first-graders when one of them, a boy she had quarreled with the day before, also 6, pulled a .32-caliber handgun out of his pocket. He shot her once in the chest, put the gun in a desk, and walked away.

Within minutes, Kayla was dead.

The shooting last month reignited the debate in Congress over whether to enact tougher gun-control laws. Despite enormous pressure after the Columbine shootings a year ago, Washington has not enacted any new gun legislation. Following the Michigan incident, President Bill Clinton, a gun-control advocate, said, "How many more people have to get killed before we do something?"

Both the Senate and House of Representatives passed different gun-control bills in the wake of Columbine, but they have not been able to forge a compromise, leaving the issue in limbo. Clinton wants Congress to break the deadlock before the first anniversary of the Columbine violence. "This is crazy for the United States to be the only advanced country in the world that doesn't take comprehensive, sensible, thorough steps to keep handguns out of the hands of criminals," the President says. "It doesn't make any sense."

What are the issues surrounding the gun control debate, and why are they proving so hard to resolve? UPFRONT looks at three key points of debate, and the passions that lie behind them:

GUN SHOWS: Federal law now requires licensed gun dealers to check the backgrounds of buyers for evidence of a criminal record or mental illness. But unlicensed dealers can sell firearms at gun shows without even asking for identification.

The Senate measure would require all vendors at gun shows to conduct checks on customers, allowing up to three days to perform them. But House leaders oppose such checks, noting that gun shows are typically held on weekends, with many visitors traveling some distance to get there. A three-day wait, they say, would all but kill the shows.

A report by the Justice Department last year found, however, that almost three quarters of background checks are completed in 30 seconds through the government's instant check system. For the rest of the buyers, said the report, 95 percent were completed within two hours.

Nevertheless, the National Rifle Association continues to lobby fiercely against extending background checks to gun shows, spending $20 million on a campaign opposing gun control.

"The only reason Congress hasn't already sent me a bill with comprehensive gun-safety provisions," Clinton says, "is because of the pressure tactics and the threats of the NRA." But U.S. Representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) says the reason is even simpler: "This is a pro-gun House."

TRIGGER LOCKS: Congressional aides say the House and Senate appear close to agreement on a measure requiring trigger locks on all new handguns. Some handguns now have so little trigger resistance they can be fired by a 3-year-old.

Seventeen states have passed laws that require safety devices like trigger locks. Clinton says that if a trigger lock had been installed on the gun used by the Michigan boy, the incident might not have happened. But critics note that while trigger locks could reduce deaths and injuries to hundreds of children, adults who intend to kill would still be free to do so.

LAWSUITS: More than two dozen cities, led by Chicago and New Orleans, have filed lawsuits against the gun industry. Modeled on successful litigation against tobacco companies, the suits seek monetary damages to compensate the cities for excess police and hospital costs incurred by gun violence.

The gun industry, backed by the NRA, is trying to block the suits in state legislatures. Fifteen states passed laws last year banning cities from suing gun manufacturers for liability, and 15 to 20 more states may pass similar legislation this year. The cities say they will challenge the legality of those laws in court.

In the end, opponents of gun control say what is needed is not new laws, but better enforcement of existing laws. "The majority of the amendments we're debating aren't about saving lives," says Representative Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). "They're about taking rights away from law-abiding citizens."

But gun-control advocates say the need for action is now. "When first-graders shoot first-graders," Clinton says, "it's time for Congress to be guided by their hearts and their heads."