Gun-Ho

The country is lucky to have Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. After the Senate voted 79 to 15 on Tuesday to weaken the nation’s already weak gun-control law, Rodino said that the Senate bill would be “dead on arrival” when it reached the House.

Rodino, whose committee must pass on the measure, is a longtime proponent of real gun control. Knowing the menace of guns and that the majority of the country favors strict controls over them, Rodino is willing to stand up to pressure from the gun lobby and say no.

The Senate bill would revoke the 17-year-old ban on the interstate sale of weapons that Congress enacted after the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The Gun Control Act of 1968 further bars over-the-counter sales of weapons to someone who lives in another state. It allows each state to regulate the sale of guns to its own citizens.

Proponents of the Senate measure contend that hunters and sportsmen should be able to buy a gun even if they are in another state when they need one. In a statement Wednesday, Rodino said, “This bill will only make it easier for criminals, drug addicts, felons and the mentally incompetent to get their hands on a gun. While no one wants to inconvenience hunters and sportsmen, at the same time we don’t want to make it easier for criminals to obtain ‘Saturday-night specials,’ which have proven to be their favorite instrument of crime.”

Rodino is right, and the 79 senators who voted for the bill--including Pete Wilson (R-Calif.)--should know it. The unrestricted sale of weapons would make the crime rate go up. Criminals would only have to go to another state to buy any weapon that they sought. Guns are a continuing and frightening threat to the American public, and Congress should be acting to make it harder, not easier, for people to get them.

Under the existing federal legislation, California has enacted a 15-day waiting period for anyone who buys a weapon. Congress should adopt a similar waiting period nationally. Rodino and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) have introduced legislation to do just that and to ban the sale, manufacture, importing or assembly of “Saturday-night specials,” which have no sporting purpose but which are the weapon of choice for criminals.

The Senate’s lopsided vote in favor of the ill-advised gun bill is appalling. The 15 who voted against it--including Alan Cranston (D-Calif.)--should be congratulated for clear thinking and their real concern for the public good. Everyone knows that violent crime is a terrible problem in the United States, and the way to attack it is by removing guns from circulation. “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people,” the gun lobby says. Correction: People with guns kill people.