Cleveland Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who is drafting legislation to ban civilian ownership of handguns, kept a pistol in his house after police learned of a Mafia plot to kill him during his tumultous stint as Cleveland's mayor during the 1970s.

Now seeking the presidency, Kucinich was among five Democratic candidates who admitted during a Thursday night presidential debate that they'd kept guns in their houses during their adulthoods. The other gun-toting Democrats were former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

"Shotgun, not pistol," Biden volunteered during the MSNBC-sponsored debate in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Kucinich spokesman Andy Juniewicz said the congressman kept a pistol at home long ago, after police learned that a Mafia hitman had planned to shoot Kucinich as he marched in an October 1978 parade. Kucinich ended up missing the parade because he was hospitalized with an ulcer, but police feared subsequent murder attempts so they recommended that he keep a gun in the house, Juniewicz said.

Details of that plot were publicized during a 1984 Senate inquiry into organized crime activities. News accounts at that time suggested that Cleveland organized crime figures were frustrated that some of Kucinich's mayoral initiatives were thwarting their money-making plans.

Earlier in his career, Kucinich owned a starter's pistol that he kept to scare potential muggers, said his congressional spokeswoman, Natalie Laber.

He no longer owns either weapon.

"From the time he first ran for city council, he has supported controls on handguns," Laber said.

After this month's massacre at Virginia Tech, Kucinich announced plans to draft legislation that would ban the purchase, sale, transfer, or possession of handguns by civilians. A gun buy-back provision will be included in the bill.

The easy availability of handguns is "a growing national crisis of public health and safety, one that calls for a powerful, wide-ranging response from Congress," Kucinich said last week.