Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) is talking to members of the Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee about preventing BATF from being involved in enforcing the Smith & Wesson/Clinton Administration agreement.

The subcommittee hasn't yet completed action on the Treasury Appropriations bill, and will probably hold a committee markup next week, "as soon as Congress gets back."

On April 7 Rep. Hostettler and 61 other Congressmen wrote Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) asking that the committee prevent BATF from participating in the "Oversight Commission" created by the S&W agreement.

Similar restrictions, offered as amendments to the Justice Department and Housing Urban Development funding bills, failed last month, but would probably survive attacks by the gun control crowd if incorporated in the committee bill.

NRA hasn't supported the earlier Hostettler amendments arguing they wouldn't apply to later agreements with other manufacturers. Rep. Hostettler submitted NRA's broader language to the House parliamentarian, who said it would be out of order because it would be legislating on an appropriations bill, which is forbidden by House rules.

However, broader language might be possible if proposed in the subcommittee bill, though that might require approval of the Rules Committee.

The House sometimes winks at the rule against legislating on appropriations bills, but not when the Speaker opposes an amendment. The Wall Street Journal has reported NRA has left Hostettler to fight alone in deference to Speaker Hastert, who doesn't want any hard gun votes.

Other Treasury, Postal Appropriations Subcommittee members are Republicans Frank Wolfe (Va.), Anne Northrup (Ky.), Jo Anne Emerson (Mo.), John Sununu (N.H.) and John Peterson (Pa.).

Democrats are Steny Hoyer (Md.), Carrie Meek (Fla.), David Price (N.C.) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (Calif.).

Gun rights stalwart Virgil Goode (Va.), an Independent, is also a member and a signer of the letter to Chairman Kolbe.

New York Times reporter Jim Dao detailed Al Gore's hypocrisy on the gun issue yesterday, reporting how he switched from a pro- gun Tennessee Congressman and Senator to his present pro-licensing, pro-registration and pro-everything else on the Clinton anti-gun agenda.

Dao called me a couple of weeks ago about Gore's gun position when I was NRA-ILA Director in 1978-82. He specifically asked about his vote to cut $4.2 million from BATF's budget. Dao was not aware that was to eliminate a gun registration regulation that BATF and the Jimmy Carter White House were promoting.

He wanted to know if Gore would have known we were opposing the regulations because they would have established a computerized gun registration program. "Absolutely no question," I told him.

Gore supporters are divided between those who said he was never really pro-gun but had to say he was to get elected, and those, like Sarah Brady, who said he had "grown."

Fact is, it was blatant opportunism. His flip-flop occurred when he decided to run for President in 1987, only three years after he had told the Nashville Banner that he opposed "stiff controls" on firearms purchases and ownership.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for an initiative this fall to require background checks on all sales at gun shows. They rejected objections that the mailed petitions did not meet state requirements.

Surprise, surprise. The National Education Association voted Monday to launch a petition drive urging Congress to pass "licensure, registration, bullet imprinting, child safety locks (and) mandatory background checks including waiting periods."

The largest teachers' union -- which has about 1 million fewer members than NRA -- also called for political activism on behalf of Democrats. That, too, is anything but a surprise.