Gunning For Assault Rifles

By Jacob V. Lamar

Technology has a way of mocking history. When the framers of the Constitution provided Americans with the right to bear arms, they could hardly have imagined the development of high-powered semiautomatic weapons capable of firing more than 30 rounds in a clip. The slaughter last January of five Stockton, Calif., schoolchildren by a psychopath wielding an imitation AK-47 assault rifle awakened the public to the danger of these paramilitary weapons. Police have complained of being outgunned by drug dealers with Uzis and AR- 15s. Urban emergency rooms have started resembling MASH units, with doctors treating the sort of huge gunshot wounds once seen only in combat. The Second Amendment notwithstanding, more and more Americans have decided that something must be done to stem the nation's internal arms race.

Last week action came on three fronts. The Bush Administration unexpectedly imposed a ban on the importation of five different types of semi-automatic rifles, pending a review to determine whether the guns have a real sporting purpose or are used primarily to kill people. The next day Colt Industries suspended commercial sales of the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, the civilian copy of the military's M-16. In California the 80-member state assembly voted by a narrow margin (41 to 38) to outlaw the manufacture and sale of semiautomatic weapons, a move that could inspire two dozen other state legislatures considering similar bans. It was a stunning triple play that exhilarated gun- control activists and left the mighty gun lobby fuming.

Just a month ago George Bush, a life member of the National Rifle Association, told reporters he was "not about to" impose a ban on semiautomatic weapons. But even as he made that claim, the President was searching for ways to cope with the surge in semiautomatic sales. Advisers from Barbara Bush to Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates pleaded with the President to outlaw the guns. For several weeks Bush had discussed the semiautomatic-weapons dilemma with his friend Senator James McClure, an Idaho Republican and staunch gun-rights defender. The President was torn between wanting to protect the rights of sportsmen and the lives of police officers.

The ban on imports offered a solution. Stephen Higgins, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, had been alarmed by the increase in foreign imports of semiautomatics: from only 4,000 in 1986, requests jumped to 40,000 in 1987, to 44,000 in 1988. In just the first three months of this year, there were 113,732 requests from foreign importers to bring the weapons into the U.S. Two weeks ago, Higgins supplied William Bennett, the Administration's designated director of national drug policy, with the startling statistics.

On Tuesday, one day after he was sworn in as "drug czar," Bennett talked * the import ban over with Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, whose department oversees the BATF. Bennett got word to White House chief of staff John Sununu about the plan. When the White House did not object, Bennett and Higgins went ahead and announced the import ban last Tuesday.

The restriction on gun importers will merely dent the semiautomatic market: roughly two-thirds of the estimated 500,000 privately owned assault-style weapons in the U.S. are made by American manufacturers. Bennett called Colt's decision to stop making AR-15s "an act of civic responsibility." But Colt could afford to be responsible: the company is now a multi-industrial conglomerate, with guns accounting for only some 5% of its $1.6 billion in annual sales. It is unlikely that other gun manufacturers will rush to follow suit.

Gun shops around the country last week were inundated by shoppers eager to grab weapons that may soon be collectors' items. At Sacramento's Wild Sports Enterprises, one of Northern California's largest gun dealers, the price of an AK-47 has increased from $300 to as much as $1,000 a copy. "These guns are coming in and going out 30 a day," exults Wild Sports owner Sterling Fligge. "I used to sell one a week. They're buying them all, everything and anything they can get their hands on."

The N.R.A. was uncharacteristically quiet about last week's events. Legislative director Wayne LaPierre expressed hope that the import ban would "put a stop to the media hysteria" surrounding semiautomatic weapons. Gun-control advocates hope that the horror wrought by semiautomatic weapons will unite the general public into a force strong enough to overcome even the gun lobby. A CBS News poll last week found that 73% of Americans favored a nationwide ban on semiautomatic weapons. "The N.R.A. can be defeated," said Luis Tolley, director of the California Office of Handgun Control Inc. "They are supposed to be this big tiger, but where are their teeth, where are their claws?" He may discover that tigers are most ferocious when they are wounded.

With reporting by Michael Duffy/Washington and Tupper Hull/Sacramento