cuchulainn
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Wait, I thought cheap Saturday Night Specials, Pocket Rockets and .50calibersniperriflesthatcanshootdowna747 were the weapons of choice for many drug dealers, gang members and terrorists.
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Showdown on guns is near
Assault weapons ban expires in 19 months
Monday February 24, 2003
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- More than eight years after Congress approved a ban on the sale of semiautomatic assault weapons, supporters and opponents are preparing to battle over whether to let the law expire as scheduled in September 2004.
Although 19 months away, the sunset date for the 1994 law banning AK-47s and similar weapons is generating intensive lobbying efforts from both sides of the emotional gun control issue.
The National Rifle Association, which questions the effectiveness of the ban, wants to see it die a quiet death. Gun control advocates worry that the targeted firearms -- the weapons of choice for many drug dealers, gang members and terrorists -- will return with a vengeance to the streets of America if the law is allowed to go off the books.
"Ask yourself: Do you really want to return to the days when Uzis and AK-47s were freely available in stores and on our streets?" said Sarah Brady, chairwoman of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Chris Cox, chief NRA lobbyist, said there's no indication the assault weapons ban has reduced violence, adding that many guns banned by the legislation are most commonly used for target shooting and not widely used for criminal acts.
"There is no logical reason to continue this 1994 law," Cox said.
Wave of popular support
The ban was part of a comprehensive crime bill, which not only banned the semi-automatic weapons but also authorized financing to hire 100,000 new police officers and added several federal crimes to the list of those eligible for the death penalty. The assault weapons provision was the most controversial provision, fought fiercely by the NRA. But supporters prevailed in part because of public reaction to several high-profile shootings involving semiautomatic weapons.
The most notable was the 1989 sniper attack at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, Calif., when a drifter sprayed the school grounds with bullets, killing five students and injuring 29. The gunman used a semiautomatic version of the AK-47, firing more than 100 rounds in less than two minutes, police said.
Just one year before the law's enactment, a man used two TEC-DC9 assault pistols with 50-round magazines to kill eight people and wound six others at a San Francisco office complex.
Even some lawmakers who usually oppose gun control, such as Sen. John Breaux, D-La., supported the ban, although he and several others generally opposed to gun control expressed a lot more enthusiasm for the provision financing more police officers.
The assault weapons provision banned 19 weapons, including the Uzi, Street Sweeper and Striker 12, along with all copies or duplicate weapons. It also banned production of ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds.
Bush support seen as key
Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie, and other opponents of gun control say the law is filled with loopholes that make it ineffective. The Violence Policy Center, which supports gun control, recently released a report that said .50-caliber sniper rifles remain legal, even though terrorists could use them to fire at a jetliner thousands of yards away, potentially piercing the craft's metal skin and knocking it from the sky.
Also not covered by the ban is the Bushmaster .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle, which was linked by laboratory tests to 11 of the 13 sniper-related shootings last year in the Washington, D.C., area. The rifle was found in the car driven by the two suspects in the shootings, which killed 11. The rifle was manufactured after the assault weapons ban and remains legal. Gun control advocates say it shows that the assault weapons ban shouldn't just be extended but strengthened.
But Vitter said his view is that instead of more restrictions, there ought to be fewer. And while he said he hasn't decided what position to take on the extension of the gun law, making it more restrictive isn't an option for him.
"If anything, I'm for giving law-abiding citizens more options, not less," Vitter said.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the original sponsors of the assault weapons ban, said he suspects support for the ban remains as high as it was before the law's enactment, when some polls suggested more than eight in 10 Americans supported it. But he isn't optimistic that the GOP-controlled House and Senate will go along unless President Bush pressures them to do so.
"We're going to try, but who knows?" Schumer said. "It's a different Congress. It's a different Senate. I think the American people, even gun owners, are for extending the assault weapons ban. But a big question is whether the House leadership will even allow it onto the floor. So the whole thing will be decided by the White House and what they want."
Gun control as politics
Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University of New York at Cortland and an expert on gun control issues, said the assault weapons ban, while still popular, isn't perceived as a winner by most politicians. Some analysts suggested Bush is president today because he carried West Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee, where traditional Democratic blue-collar voters were opposed to Democrat Al Gore's support for gun control.
"I just don't see the administration moving aggressively for extension of the assault weapons ban," Spitzer said.
A White House spokesman said the president stands behind his campaign commitment to support an extension of the ban, but he would not say if Bush will ask Congress to do so.
The NRA continues to make elimination of the assault weapon ban a priority. It is one of the issues the organization used to decide which campaigns to target in the recent midterm congressional elections.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who was hurt by a series of critical NRA ads during her first Senate campaign in 1996, was anxious not to be a target of the group during her recent re-election run. She agreed to co-sponsor legislation that would hold gun manufacturers exempt from damages awarded by courts for injuries caused by their weapons, another NRA priority bill. On assault weapons, Landrieu spokesman Rich Masters said, she agreed to examine studies on the effectiveness of the law before deciding what position to take.
As a result of her pre-election position, the NRA didn't run any negative TV ads during the 2002 campaign. It did, however, send out letters proclaiming the organization's support for Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, who the group noted had taken pro-gun-rights positions across the board. Some Landrieu supporters think the NRA decision not to go after her in 2002 was a factor in her runoff victory.
Breaux, Landrieu's senior Democratic counterpart, said it's much too early to tell how the issue will play. Most members, Breaux said, including himself in that category, haven't taken a position and probably won't until "we get much closer" to the expiration date.
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Bruce Alpert can be reached at [email protected] or (202) 383-7861.
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