#37 SEMI-AUTO BANS ROARING By NEAL KNOX [x]BULLETIN[xx] -- Washington, D.C. (Feb. 22) -- The first ray of sunshine broke through the drizzle of bad news on semi-autos today when a Maryland House committee killed a sweeping Los Angeles-type firearms ban 16-5; rejected a police-proposed "compromise" ban on 28 specific military lookalikes by 11-10; and killed, by 11-8, a statewide handgun registration system requiring notice to police of private transfers. Most of the principal spokesmen in the Maryland handgun ban referendum last year testified against the bills last week; our reappearance, and the statement of one of our spokesmen, Bob McMurray, that "if you pass this, we'll get another case of Maalox and again take it to referendum," apparently inspired the majority of the committee to kill the bills. --- Cleveland, Ohio (Feb. 21) -- Cleveland's Law Director, acting for vacationing Mayor George Voinovich, today signed into law a semi-auto firearms ban -- shortly before a joint press conference conducted by Bill Bash of the Ohio Sportsmen and Firearms Council, Chuck Cunningham of NRA and me, for the Firearms Coalition. The ordinance -- which is likely to be copied in the Cleveland suburbs -- was enacted Friday night without any advance notice, in possible violation of the state's "Sunshine Laws." Council President George Forbes snickeringly called the maneuver the "Cleveland Shuffle" -- saying it was done to prevent the gun lobby from organizing against the bill. Voinovich, who is expected to run for governor, ran an unsuccessful race as a "pro-gun candidate" against Sen. Howard Metzenbaum last fall. Many Ohioans, including Clevelanders, told me they wouldn't vote for Voinovich "for I don't trust him." They were right. In California, NRA today filed a lawsuit challenging the Los Angeles and Stockton bans as violations of the state's pre-emption law, which was designed to prevent a patchwork of differing local gun laws. Many other states and cities are also considering such laws - - including New Orleans, despite a Louisiana pre-emption law enacted in 1985. (NRA Executive Vice President J. Warren Cassidy did a commendable job while taking a strong Second Amendment stance in a debate last night with a New Orleans councilwoman.) Also last night, the Virginia legislature cleared the way for a "compromise" law approved by Handgun Control Inc. and "not opposed" by NRA. It requires dealers to call state police on an 800 number to determine that buyers of handguns and certain military lookalike semi-autos are not felons. The law prohibits transfer or [x]possession[xx] -- even while driving through the city -- of "assault weapons" defined as "(1) any semiautomatic action center fire rifle or carbine that accepts a detachable magazine with a capacity of 20 rounds or more; (2) any semiautomatic shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than six rounds; (3) any semiautomatic handgun ... originally designed to accept a detachable magazine with a capacity of more than 20 rounds," or any combination of parts to make such a gun -- presumably meaning a magazine with a capacity of 20 rounds or more. Cleveland newsmen had been told that the law is "identical to" the Stockton, Calif., ban, but there are significant differences; the Stockton (and Los Angeles) ordinances exempt guns made before 1954, which Cleveland's doesn't. Also the Cleveland law, which presently applies only to center fire semi-automatics, has a revealing exemption for "any firearm that uses .22 caliber rimfire ammunition with a detachable magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds or less." --- =============================================================================