Stop the Posse

Last year the U.S. Senate passed S 49, which would seriously weaken the 1968 Gun Control Act by allowing the interstate sale of handguns and by reducing record-keeping requirements that facilitate tracing guns used in crimes. At the time, Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) said that the bill would be dead on arrival when it got to the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs.

But the gun lobby now has persuaded 190 House members to call for the immediate discharge of the bill from Rodino’s committee, and needs only 28 more. In response, Rodino promises to schedule a prompt hearing on any gun legislation approved by the crime subcommittee.

This bill would help criminals and harm law enforcement. It is opposed by 11 of the nation’s leading law-enforcement organizations. Jerald R. Vaughn, executive director of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, told a recent news conference, “It is our view--the view of police chiefs, sheriffs, state troopers, patrolmen and federal law-enforcement officers, the crime-control experts who know best about guns and criminals--that this legislation will make bad law. The changes it proposes will only serve to increase the danger for police officers and the citizens they are sworn to protect.”

Yet efforts persist by people who call themselves law-and-order advocates to enact this legislation, which, among other provisions, would weaken current laws concerning the use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime. Current law permits people to buy guns only in the state in which they live. By allowing the interstate sale of handguns, which have no sporting purpose whatsoever, the bill would make it easier for criminals to bypass state and local handgun laws and obtain weapons.

The existing federal gun-control law strikes a balance between society’s need to protect itself from firearms and individuals’ desires to have guns. If anything, the current law should be strengthened, not weakened. Guns present an unnecessary danger, and should be opposed by everyone who is concerned about crime. Rodino understands that. He has stood firm against the Senate bill, and shows no sign of wavering. But the best hope of stopping it now may be that House members will come to their senses and either resign from or refuse to join the gun lobby’s legislative posse. Public safety demands no less.