USA TODAY
April 28, 1999, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 4A
Advocates of gun control protest law's loopholes
By Richard Willing
For gun control advocates, the weapons
used in the Littleton, Colo., massacre were familiar enemies --
sawed-off shotguns bought at unregulated trade shows and a semiautomatic
pistol banned from production since 1994.
"All the things we'd been talking about and working against for years,
and here they are in the middle of this horror," says Kristen Rand, public
policy director for the Violence Policy Center, a research group based
in Washington, D.C., that favors gun control. "A person couldn't
be blamed for asking how much had really been accomplished."
As President Clinton presses forward with new gun control proposals,
advocates and opponents of gun control are drawing their own lessons
from Littleton.
Gun control advocates say the disaster proves the need for better
legislation. They're backing provisions that would require all gun show
sales to be subject to federal background checks, as sales from licensed
dealers are. And they are seeking to close holes in the 1994 federal ban
on assault weapons. Manufacturers have been able to circumvent the ban
by making slight modifications to their semiautomatic pistols.
Federal law enforcement "doesn't have the tools it needs to stand up
to the industry," Rand says. "(Rules) are so wimpy now that it's easy for
the gun industry to get its way."
But representatives of the gun industry and other gun control
opponents say the Littleton shooting illustrates the futility of
gun
control laws. Gun show checks wouldn't have stopped shooters Eric Harris,
18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, they say, because apparently the teen-agers
obtained the weapons illegally through third parties, including Klebold's
prom date, Robyn Anderson.
"These kids already violated every gun control law," says Joe
Waldron, director of the Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms. "What
else are you going to do?"
Critics of gun control say the 1994 federal law intended to end
production of semiautomatic "assault weapons" provided manufacturers with
a blueprint for staying in business.
"Semiautomatic is semiautomatic, whether it's your Grandpa's rifle or
Don Johnson's (pistol) on Miami Vice," says Bob Ricker, director of the
American Shooting Sports Council of Washington, D.C., the major trade group
for the industry.
"So Congress came along and told us, 'Don't make guns with these names,
and don't make guns that have things like folding stocks or certain types
of pistol grips.'
"They told us, in essence, that these are 'bad guns.' So we took 'em
off (the market) and made 'good' guns" instead.
The history of the Tec-9, a semiautomatic pistol used by the two gunmen
in Littleton, illustrates the frustrations inherent in trying to
ban "assault weapons," as gun opponents call them.
The industry objects to that name.
The weapon was built about 1980 by Intratec, a small Miami company founded
with a federal grant. The company's president, Carlos Garcia, could not
be reached for comment.
The Tec-9 weighed less than 3 pounds and retailed for less than $ 200.
It fired a 9mm bullet, cleared the chamber and loaded a new round with
a single squeeze of the trigger. A 32-bullet clip, suspended from the barrel,
allowed the gun to fire more bullets far faster than a conventional pistol
or revolver.
The Tec-9 was a quick success. It acquired a sort of notoriety thanks
to television shows such as Miami Vice that placed the pistol in the hands
of actors playing big-time drug dealers.
According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, annual
production leapt from 2,995 in 1981 to an average of 14,466 pistols in
the last four years of the decade.
The Tec-9 attracted the attention of gun control advocates and
of law enforcement. In 1989, California banned the Tec-9. In 1991, the
District of Columbia followed suit, banning the Tec-9 by name and making
Intratec legally liable for shootings involving the weapon.
The pistol's manufacturer responded quickly, renaming the weapon the
Tec-DC9 and adding a nylon shoulder sling to get around the ban.
In 1994, Congress tried to close that loophole. The federal assault
weapons bill banned the Tec-9 and the Tec-DC9 by name. And to head off
future renamings, the law laid out five characteristics that define a semiautomatic
pistol. These included a barrel capable of mounting a silencer and a "shroud"
that allows the barrel
to be gripped with both hands and fired like a rifle.
New pistols could contain no more than one of the five characteristics.
But the old pistols were allowed to stay in circulation and to be resold.
Intratec retooled again, producing a shroudless and silencer-free model
renamed the AB-10. The "AB," the manufacturer told gun merchants, stood
for "After Ban."
It was a "conscious attempt to laugh at the spirit of the law if not
the letter," says Rand of the Violence Policy Center.
But John Velleco, spokesman for Gun Owners of America, says Intratec
should not be criticized merely for following federal guidelines.
"Gun manufacturers and dealers spend money and jump through hoops to
comply with the assault weapons ban," he says. "Then Clinton turns around
and accuses them of using a loophole."
In the wake of Littleton, both sides expect more changes. A bill
requiring purchasers at gun shows to undergo federal background checks
may have the best chance of passing, in part because the American Shooting
Sports Council, the trade group, has joined the White House in supporting
it. The council wants to protect its members, who include gun wholesalers
and some retailers, against gun-show competition.
Other changes will be tougher. Gun control advocates want to
give the ATF additional power to fine and suspend the licenses of manufacturers
that make weapons aimed at skirting the law. They say that authority would
supplement the bureau's power to ban guns outright, which is difficult
to implement and used infrequently.
Meanwhile, there is evidence that the market for weapons may have peaked.
The U.S. firearms industry produced 3.8 million guns in 1996, including
1.4
million handguns, according to the ATF. That compares with 5.1 million
total and 2.9 million handguns produced in 1994, the industry's biggest
year since 1980.
Intratec's business reflects the trend. In 1994, the year the ban was
passed, the company produced a record 75,102 of its semiautomatic pistols.
The number fell to 9,584 in 1995, and 5,820 in 1996, the last year for
which figures are available.
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