WASHINGTON — Patti Nielson figures that if anyone can persuade Congress to pass a stalled gun control bill, it's a teacher who was shot at Columbine High School last year.
Nielson, who was grazed by a bullet fired by Eric Harris, a student at the Littleton, Colo., school, came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to plead the case for the gun control measure.
"Maybe because I was shot at Columbine, maybe they'll understand it's coming from my heart," Nielson said after a news conference arranged by gun control advocates.
Nielson wants Congress to pass the juvenile justice bill that has been stalled for nine months. There is broad support for certain provisions, such as child safety locks for handguns and barring gun sales to people with juvenile criminal records. The measure has been held up by debate over requiring background checks for purchasers at gun shows.
Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine students who killed a dozen students and a teacher last April 20 before killing themselves, used four guns bought at gun shows.
"I'm here today because I'm wondering, 'Why hasn't Congress done anything to prevent what happened at Columbine from happening again?' " Nielson said.
Nielson was on duty as a lunchroom monitor when she saw Harris, who smiled and shot at her. Grazed in the shoulder, Nielson ran into the school's library, called 911, and then hid as Harris and Klebold entered the library and killed several students and themselves.
"I thought I was in a safe place, and to know that there is no safe place, it can happen anytime, anywhere — that's frightening to me," said Nielson, wiping away a tear.
Democrats and Republicans blame each other for the impasse over the gun control measure.
John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Democratic leaders refuse to consider any "common-sense compromise" on the issue.
Feehery did not say what specific compromise Hastert favors.
"The big holdup is that the Democratic leadership wants the politics, not the policy," Feehery said. "It's an election year, and Democrats would rather run against a 'do-nothing Congress.' They're being do-nothing Democrats."
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat whose husband was gunned down on a commuter train, said Democrats cannot accept a watered-down version of the bill.
"Am I going to compromise to the point where I'm going to have a victim come see me in three or four months and say, 'Why did you compromise?' No, I cannot do that," said McCarthy, who organized Nielson's news conference.