-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Report No. 27, The Firearms Coalition of Silver Spring, MD. Feb. 25, 1989. Reprinted with permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'THE HELL WITH THE CONSTITUTION' by Neal Knox Asked if his "Assault Weapon" ban was Constitutional, California Assemblyman Mike Roos blurted "*the hell with the Constitution*; we've got to do something to bring sanity back to our communities." Such outrageous disrespect for the Constitution legislators are sworn to uphold is spreading like wildfire across the nation. Politicians from coast to coast are waving Chinese-made semi-auto AK-47's while introducing bills to prohibit as many rifles, pistols and shotguns as they can. The anti-gunners have made serious inroads, even passing a "compromise" supposedly instantaneous background check on buyers of most handguns and some semi-automatic rifles in Virginia, but the insane rush to blame steel for the actions of people has begun to slow -- though it's far from stopped. President George Bush has surprised and heartened us with statements condemning the ban attempts and saying, earlier this week, "I want to be a President that protects the rights of people to have arms." Those statements have stiffened the spines of many wavering Republicans, and quite a few Democrats, on Capitol hill and in state legislatures. In another ray of sunshine, the Maryland committee that last year orig- inally approved the bitterly fought handgun ban, this week rejected a California-type "assault rifle" ban 16-5. The Maryland referendum has been cited nationally as evidence that "the gun lobby can be beaten;" this week's vote said: "Maybe so, but we don't want another fight like that one." The Maryland committee also rejected a specific list of 28 "assault weapons" which police chiefs wanted banned, and killed a requirement for private handgun transfers to be reported to police. As predicted last fall, "Assault Rifle" is being used to attack the private ownership of conventional rifles and shotguns just as "Saturday Night Special" has been used to ban high-quality handguns. As predicted from the day they were organized in 1974, *Handgun* Control Inc. and National Coalition to Ban *Handguns* have been in the forefront of this nationwide attack upon rifles and shotguns. Not only have both organizations been testifying for the broadest legislation proposed, but HCI has served as an information clearinghouse, drafting and distributing various bills, and lobbying city and state officials to introduce them. The just-retired deputy director of BATF, Phillip McGuire, who immediately went to work as a "consultant" to HCI, was particularly visible in California, promoting city-by-city bans such as enacted by Los Angeles, Stockton and Compton. The furor has spread to other states and cities, including Cleveland, which last week adopted a Stockton-type bill, and New Orleans, where one is pending. Massachusetts Gov. Micheal Dukakis called for a broad ban Feb. 15. In Congress, Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH) has already managed hearings on his S. 386, and it's likely that "assault rifle" hearings will be scheduled in the House by Rep. William Hughes on H.R. 669 by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), a similar generic definition bill being prepared by Fortney (pete) Stark (D-CA), and a "review panel" bill by Robert Torricelli (D-NJ). Despite all the media's claims, all this anti-gun effort did not stem from the murders of five Stockton, CA, children. That tragedy merely fueled legislation that had begun in state legislatures and Congress months before. On Dec. 5, California Attorney General John Van de Kamp sent a letter to "All Police Chiefs and Sheriffs" stating that he was drafting an "assault rifle" ban, and asking for data to support it. He wanted a count of the number of crimes and seizures of "assault rifles," defined as "any semi-auto weapon" (including rimfires) with 20-shot capacity and "Any shotgun, whether semi-automatic or otherwise, with a magazine or ammunition capacity of 5 rounds or more." That includes most tubular magazine shotguns such as the popular Remington 1100 and 870, and Browning Auto-5. California Assemblyman Roos, who had introduced variations of his current ban in earlier years, made his outrageous statement disparaging the Constitution on KGO-TV, San Francisco, during the February 11 debate with Sam Parades of Gun Owners of California. That was only two days before Assembly Speaker Willie Brown attempted to ram A.B. 357, the Roos "assault weapon" ban through the Assembly under suspension of the rules. Hearings will be held on the Roos bill and Senate President David Robertis's now identical S.B. on Tuesday. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Metzenbaum Rifle Ban Hearing Held Sen. Paul Simon's (D-IL) Constitution Subcommittee held hearings Feb. 10 on "Assault Rifles," though Sen. Howard Metzenbaum's (D-OH) bill, S. 386, was not introduced until too late for witnesses to formally comment. Emotional testimony supporting a ban was given by a teacher from the Stockton elementary school and an ex-FBI agent severely wounded in the shootout in Florida in which two agents were killed by robbers armed with a Ruger Mini-14 and Remington 1100 shotgun. Edward D. Conroy, newly appointed Deputy Associate Director of BATF upset ban advocates by stating "there is no technical distinction between an 'assault rifle' and a sporting weapon." Jim Baker of NRA-ILA, John Snyder of CCRKBA and I testified. S. 386 has has been held in full Judiciary Committee because supporters feared it would be deadlocked 3-3 if assigned to the subcommittee. Votes for the bill would be Sens. Simon, Metzenbaum and Edward Kennedy (D-MA); probable opponents are Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Other members of the committee, which *should be called and written*, particularly by constituents, are Democrats Joseph Biden (DE) (chairman), Robert Byrd (WV), Patrick Leahy (VT), Howard Heflin (AL) and Herbert Kohl (WI) and Republicans Strom Thurmond (SC), Alan Simpson (WY), Charles Grassley (IA), and Gordon Humphery (NH). They may be reached at (202)- 224-3121. The Metzenbaum bill intends to treat "assault weapons" -- defined -- exactly the same as machineguns, including the freeze on new guns and national registration with a police check of present owners. It bans the sale to civilians of new semi-auto rifles and pistols *capable of accepting* a 10-shot detachable box magazine, and shotguns or .22 rimfire tiblar rifles with more than six rounds capacity. Each detachable box magazine handgun or rifle would be banned, for extension magazines exist, or are easily made, for all of them; modern pistols like the U.S. Army standard Beretta 9mm come from the factory with a pair of 15-shot magazines and a 22-shot magazine is an option. S. 386 specifially names 10 prohibited models, including the Colt AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14, but designates the Treasury Secretary and Attorney General to identify the rest of the prohibited guns. It's a variation of Congress' favorite ploy -- appointing a commission to legislate unpopular acts as cutting spending programs, closing military bases or setting Congressional pay. The bill provides the same five year sentence for possessing a prohibited gun or merely a 10-shot magazine, or using one to commit a violent crime. During the hearing Baker told Metzenbaum that NRA "will not help you ban any guns, but we'll glad to work to prevent criminal misuse." Metzenbam exploded: "No, we're not looking at how to control criminals ... we're talking about banning the AK-47 and semi-auto guns." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Court Doubts M.G. Freeze An Atlanta Federal Court has ruled that the 1986 law banning registration of new machine guns -- the Hughes-Smith Amendment to McClure-Volkmer -- may violate the Second Amendment, that the law does not preclude all new registrations and conversions, but that BATF has discretion to deny some conversions. This strange ruling was handed down in January after the judge had been sitting on the NRA-backed case, Farmer v. Higgins for almost a year. The law prohibits new registrations except under the authority of the government, which Farmer's attorneys argued is granted whenever someone goes through the convoluted registration system. The agreed, stating that if he didn't read it taht way, the law could be unconstitutional, since machineguns were clearly militia equipment as described in U.S. v. Miller. However, the judge dismissed the suit, ruling that it was within BATF's discretion to deny an application -- which is likely to be challenged. Though we've known about this case since before it was filed we haven't reported upon it at the request of NRA and lead attorney Steve Halbrook. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virginia Law Hits Mostly Handguns Virginia became the first state to pass an "assault rifle" law Feb. 23, but it primarily affects handguns -- those with barrels under five inches. It passed the House 81-15 and Senate 33-6. The law requires an "instantaneous" check by telephone of a resident buyer's criminal record, with a 24-hour wait if state police have not been given an okay. Police will be prohibited from keeping records of approved firearms transactions for more than 30 days. The bill does not replace the existing waiting period laws in Northern Virginia. Center fire semi-auto rifles that are packaged by the manufacturer or importer with a 20-round or smaller magazine, and which do not have a bayonet lug, folding stock or are not threaded for a flash suppressor, are not affected by the Virginia law. One of the final compromises, puzzlingly insisted upon by a military firearms collector who works for an importer, was to make the mimimum affected capacity 21 rounds OR a bayonet lug/threaded barrel. Without that change, the semi-auto AKM, which is the ostensible target of all these efforts, and which is sometimes packaged with only a five-round magazine, *wouldn't have been affected*. Many Virginia NRA members are steaming because the association rejected offers of telephone and computer-equipped offices for phone banks, and because of NRA mailing screw-ups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- L.A. Lawsuit Filed Both Los Angeles' and Stockton's "assault weapon" possession bans have been challenged by local citizens, backed by NRA-funded attorneys, alleging that they are violations of the state's pre-emption law. The laws are similar to others, within the state and nation, including the even-worse Cleveland law. Los Angeles principally defines "assult weapon" as "any semi-automatic action, center fire rifle or carbine which accepts a detachable magazine with a capacity of twenty round or more ... shotguns with a barrel of less than 18 inches [note: some copycat bills say 19] and a folding stock or magazine capacity of more than six rounds." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stockton Killings Show Law Failures If there was ever a berserk gunnman who should have been prevented by gun laws from obtaing a gun, it was Patrick Edward Purdy. He was a Stockton, Calif., drifter with convictions for significant crimes, including robbery and narcotics violations, mental problems that had caused a police psychiatrist to declare him a danger to himself and the public, and which allowed him to draw $682 monthly Social Security for mental disability. Yet Calififornia's vaunted handgun background check and 15-day waiting period allowed him to buy five handguns, including the semi-auto version of the 32-shot MAC-10 submachine gun. The first schoolday after he obtained a 15-shot Taurus, he used it to kill himself after killing five others with an AKM. There was no background check on his purchase of the semi-auto AK, but if there had been, he would have obtained it just as easily as he did his MAC-10, or obtained a California license to carry a handgun as a security guard. He purchaed the Taurus December 28, obtaining it after California 15-day background check on Friday Jan. 13. The schools were closed Monday, and he went on his killing rampage Tuesday -- the kind of immediate use, we're told, that a waiting period would prevent. It didn't. Purdy had plea-bargained thre serious offenses down to misdemeanors, so he had no disqualifying felony convictions. But Federal law prohibits firearms aquisition by anyone who is "an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance," which was certainly indicated by his convictions, even if they were misdemeanors. Federal law also disqualifies any person who "has been adjudicated as a mental incompetent." Some Social Security official must have. No wonder the Stockton police have sealed the records which were availible to them when they approved his gun purchases. The sudden "loss" of the records on Purdy and the case raises questions in anyone's mind.