Senate Approves Bill to End Ban on Interstate Gun Sales

The Senate on Tuesday endorsed the first major weakening of federal gun control laws since the 1968 assassinations of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy stirred lawmakers to pass tough rules restricting the sale and possession of handguns and other firearms.

Pressed by conservatives, the Republican-led chamber voted 79 to 15 in favor of a bill that would end an absolute ban on the interstate sale of weapons and allow gun dealers to resume over-the-counter sales to customers from out of state. Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, sales are restricted to customers who live in the same state as the dealer.

The measure would also guarantee gun owners the right to carry weapons across state lines as long as they are kept unloaded and in a place without easy access, such as a car trunk.

Gun owners, gun dealers and the National Rifle Assn. had strongly backed the bill, arguing that present laws unfairly burden legitimate sportsmen and dealers with red tape and subject them to harassment by federal agents. But law enforcement officials, liberals and other advocates of gun control responded that passage of the bill would hamper efforts at crime control.

Sen. James A. McClure (R-Ida.), chief sponsor of the bill, said that the vote indicated “overwhelming support from every sector of the country, saying: ‘Let’s punish criminals, but let’s stop focusing on law-abiding gun owners and dealers.’ ”

He said that restricting gun sales--even sales of so-called “Saturday night specials” and “snubbies” often used in crimes--violates the constitutional right to bear arms. “Attempting to limit crime by attempting to limit the availability of guns simply does not work,” McClure insisted.

The measure now goes to the Democratic-controlled House, where a spokesman for Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N. J.) said its fate hinges on whether supporters will agree to significant modifications demanded by the gun control advocates.

Those modifications include the imposition of a uniform 14-day waiting period before an out-of-state gun buyer may obtain his weapon from a dealer and retention of the present ban on interstate sales and transport of handguns.

‘A Palatable Bill’

With those two amendments “it becomes a palatable bill,” Rodino’s spokesman said. “It could become a starting point . . . . Otherwise, it’s dead.”

The Senate rejected similar amendments by wide margins Tuesday before its final vote on the bill. McClure argued that adoption of the waiting period could result in federal record-keeping rules, which in turn could lead to creation of a national registry of gun owners--a possibility fiercely resisted by many conservatives.

“It would kill this legislation,” he insisted. Currently, there is no federal waiting period, although several states have adopted one. In California, a gun buyer must wait 15 days before he can pick up his weapon, a delay designed to prevent suicides and crimes of passion.

McClure and his backers rejected another change sought by gun control advocates, who wanted stricken from the bill a provision that would require agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to give gun dealers advance notice before conducting routine compliance inspections.

Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.) complained that alerting dealers to inspections would give them a chance to cover up violations, but supporters of the bill asserted that federal agents often harass legitimate gun dealers with frequent and unnecessary visits.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), whose two brothers were shot to death, argued that facilitating handgun sales would only encourage criminals. Robert Kennedy was murdered on June 5, 1968, with a handgun, and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, with a mail-order rifle.

Protection ‘Undermined’

“The ready availability of lethal, concealable handguns undermines the fundamental effort to protect citizens from violent crimes,” Kennedy declared. “ . . . Instead of weakening handgun controls, we should be working to keep handguns from falling into the wrong hands, without jeopardizing in any way the legitimate sporting interests of our citizens or their interest in self-defense.”

California’s senators divided on the issue. Republican Pete Wilson voted to end the ban on interstate sales and Democrat Alan Cranston voted to retain it.

According to statistics provided by Handgun Control, a Washington-based lobbying group that had worked hard to defeat the Senate bill, handguns were used to murder 9,014 persons in 1983.