Washington State: "Lawmaker injects gun debate into terrorism bill"

[cuchulainn]

Does this mean box cutters are WMDs?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/112761_terrorgun15ww.shtml

Saturday, March 15, 2003
Lawmaker injects gun debate into terrorism bill

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA -- The state's anti-terrorism bill is being bogged down by a debate about gun control, after one lawmaker proposed including firearms on the list of weapons of mass destruction.

Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, sponsored an amendment to House Bill 1210 saying that terror-related gun crimes would be punishable by the harsher penalties outlined in the anti-terrorism measure.

Darneille said the sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area last year show that acts of terrorism can be committed with firearms. The string of shootings left 13 dead.

The two suspects had ties to Western Washington.

A statement from Attorney General Christine Gregoire's office said the attempt to identify guns as weapons of mass destruction are "unnecessary and threaten to sidetrack important legislation on terrorism into a debate about gun control."

Darneille told The Associated Press on Saturday that sidetracking the legislation is part of her intent. She opposes the death penalty, and is afraid that the Republican-controlled Senate might add the death penalty to the anti-terrorism bill if the House passes it. At that point, she and others in the House who oppose the death penalty might be powerless to stop it.

"Because of the concern about the amendment, now it may not go anywhere," Darneille said.

Last year an anti-terrorism bill passed the House but was stopped in the Senate by Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle. Kline, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he worried the legislation would take away civil rights.

This year the bill was given better odds since Republicans now control the Senate.

This year's bill establishes six new terrorism-related crimes, including making possession of a weapon of mass destruction a class A felony. The measure defines a weapon of mass destruction as a "device, object, or substance that a person intends to use to cause multiple human deaths." No specific weapons are mentioned.

Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, has sponsored an amendment specifically defining weapons of mass destruction as "any chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent, object, or device" intended for terrorism.

With Darneille's amendment, Buck said, "It's obvious the anti-gun people in the Legislature saw an opportunity to try to make a point."

Connecticut gun maker Colt's Manufacturing wrote legislative leaders last week, saying Darneille's move "is an attempt to regulate gun control."

Joe Waldron, a lobbyist for the Gun Owner's Action League and other gun-rights groups, said the bill is "poorly worded" and should be changed to include Buck's amendment. That, he said, meets "everybody else's definition other than those in Olympia."