Kolender’s Claims as Head of Group Disputed : Police Chiefs Assail Bill to Weaken Gun Laws

Led by San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender, big-city police executives meeting here Wednesday denounced legislation that would weaken federal handgun laws.

“We don’t think you should be able to walk . . . into a store and buy a gun,” said Kolender, chairman of the Major City Police Chiefs Assn. “We don’t think you should be able to buy a handgun through a mail-order catalogue. We don’t think the public needs to possess Uzis. That is ridiculous.”

However, none of the issues cited by Kolender at a press conference are addressed in the measure, according to spokesmen for the two congressmen who introduced the bill. They accused the police chiefs of resorting to “blatant lies” as part of a desperate attempt to defeat the bill.

In addition, another police chief who joined Kolender at the press conference acknowledged later that Kolender’s interpretation of the bill was inaccurate.

“The handgun control people . . . at first were making some of those accusations, but they finally had to stop because they weren’t true,” said Dave Warner, a spokesman for the National Rifle Assn. “I thought at least that part about mail-order sales had been quelled, but obviously (the police chiefs) are on thin ice and trying to create a bad public image of this bill.”

The legislation, which was approved, 79-11, by the Republican-led Senate in July, 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. The bill also would 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.

But the measure, sponsored by Sen. James McClure (R-Ida.) and Rep. Harold Volkmer (D-Mo.), has been stuck in the Democratic-controlled House, where Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) has refused to allow it to be introduced. Proponents are trying to collect the 218 signatures necessary to bring the measure to the House floor for debate. So far, they have gathered support from 168 House members.

The legislation represents the first major erosion of federal gun control laws since the 1968 assassinations of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy led to their passage.

Speaking at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, where they have been meeting since Sunday night, police executives from major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas announced that they were unanimous in opposing legislation that makes handguns more accessible.

“This is the first time in the history of the United States that law enforcement has banded together on a single issue,” said Neil Behan, chief of the Baltimore County, Md., Police Department. “They are determined to defeat this bill. There are 20,000 deaths a year due to handguns, and 60 to 70 of those are police officers.”

Behan, who has spearheaded police opposition in Washington, said the McClure-Volkmer bill was approved in the Senate because the powerful NRA lobby said it had the support of law enforcement. He said big-city police chiefs were so shocked by the statements that they joined together with groups such as the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the Police Foundation and the Federal Law Enforcement Assn. to fight the bill.

Greg Witter, McClure’s press secretary, said Behan neglected to mention that many law enforcement officials have pledged their support of the bill, including the International Union of Police Assns., the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Federation of Police, and attorneys general from Rhode Island, Washington, Arizona and Alabama.

“They made it sound as if every law enforcement agency in this country is against this bill,” Witter said. “That is not the case.”

Witter added that the factual errors provided to the media during Wednesday’s press conference were similar to others made around the country by police organizations.

“Saying the bill allows Uzis to be sold is a new one on me,” Witter said. “That’s ludicrous.”

When reached later in the day concerning his comments, Kolender replied, “That just isn’t true. That is our interpretation of the bill, and we think that rather than put forth laws which would make handguns more readily available, that the opposite should be true.”

Behan, however, acknowledged that Kolender erred when he said the McClure-Volkmer bill would abolish state laws that call for 14-day waiting periods before a gun buyer may purchase a weapon. Behan said Kolender also made inaccurate statements when he said the bill would allow consumers to purchase automatic rifles such as Uzis and order handguns through the mail.

“Bill was talking about some real controversies in the country, but they’re not related to the bill,” Behan said.

Still, Behan said, he and other police officials share numerous concerns about the proposed gun legislation. They include the following:

- McClure-Volkmer would eliminate provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 that restrict sales to customers who live in the same state as the dealer. Under the bill, a person would be able to purchase a handgun anywhere in country providing such a transaction is legal both in his state of residence and the state where the dealer operates.

“The problem is, How can any dealer know all of the laws in every state of the Union?” Behan said.

Proponents argue that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms would issue the laws of each state to dealers. However, Behan said the bureau is already two years behind in providing other information to dealers and that the backlog is likely to get worse as Congress trims the federal budget.

- Police officers are currently allowed to walk into gun shops unannounced during business hours to conduct routine compliance inspections. Under the proposed bill, investigators would be limited to one announced visit per year and would have to obtain search warrants for other inspections.

Supporters of the bill complain that federal agents often harass legitimate gun dealers with frequent and unnecessary visits. Critics contend that alerting gun dealers to inspections would give them time to cover up violations.

- Dealers are now required to carefully record details of every gun transaction. Under McClure-Volkmer, if a dealer keeps a gun in his private collection for more than one year, he may sell it without recording the transaction. Behan said law enforcement officers oppose any legislation that prevents them from tracing handguns to their owners.

“McClure-Volkmer keeps watering down the law,” Behan said. “We’re saying it’s bad enough now, don’t make the laws any weaker.”

Gerald Anenberg, executive director of the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police, a Washington-based group that provides education and training for police commanders, said he supports the new handgun legislation.

“The easy thing for me to say would be we favor (Kolender’s view) and the NRA should be shot down,” said Anenberg, the former police chief of Golf, Ill. “That would be a popular position, but that would be a false impression.”

Anenberg said he favors provisions in the bill such as the one that permits people to carry weapons across state lines.

“One of the complaints we get from police officers is that they want to be armed when they leave their communities,” Anenberg said. “There are thousands of different laws regulating guns and firearms in different states. If a police officer, for example, leaves the state of Illinois, he can’t travel into Indiana or Michigan and carry a firearm.”