Eased Gun Controls Passed by Senate, Sent to Reagan

The Senate Tuesday passed and sent to President Reagan a controversial bill that would ease federal gun laws enacted after the 1968 assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

The measure, which placated the National Rifle Assn. but angered many law enforcement officials, had been approved by the House on a 292-130 vote last month. It sailed through the Senate on a voice vote after sponsors agreed to back a separate bill sought by law enforcement officials and gun control advocates that would modify a few of the changes. That second bill was hurriedly drafted, passed and sent to the House, also on a voice vote.

Sen. James A. McClure (R-Ida.), one of the sponsors of the primary measure, declared that “there is no doubt” that Reagan, a lifetime NRA member, will sign it.

The developments culminated a seven-year crusade by McClure, chief House sponsor Harold L. Volkmer (D-Mo.) and the NRA to wipe out federal rules restricting interstate sales and transportation of weapons and requiring gun dealers to keep detailed sales and inventory records.

Law enforcement officials contended that the rules deterred criminals from carrying weapons in cars and trucks and made it easier to trace arms used in crimes. But opponents of gun control argued that the regulations impinged on individual freedoms and saddled law-abiding citizens with unnecessary red tape.

Although the NRA and its supporters did not get everything they wanted, the measure sent to Reagan would lift existing bans on the interstate transportation of handguns and rifles and on the sale of shotguns and rifles to out-of-state customers.

Other key provisions would ease record-keeping requirements for gun dealers and limit the right of federal agents to conduct surprise investigations of gun dealers.

Tuesday’s vote was the second time around for the legislation in the Senate, which last year overwhelmingly passed a version that would have loosened gun laws even further by allowing the interstate sale of handguns as well as rifles. The handgun sales ban was restored in the Democratic House over NRA objections.

Ban on Machine Guns

In addition, the House added a prohibition on manufacturing machine guns, but other attempts by gun control advocates to toughen the bill failed--including a move to forbid the importation and manufacture of a new type of weapon, plastic guns, which are hard for airport security equipment to detect.

McClure dismissed the entire 1968 gun control law as a “mistake” and said he was opposed to the House changes preserving some of the 18-year-old rules. But, in a tactical move, McClure said he and supporters of eased gun laws decided not to fight the House revisions in order to avoid sending the bill to a legislative conference committee, where it might “run into a dead-on-arrival syndrome that would kill it.”

Similarly, the Idaho lawmaker said backers of the new legislation agreed to the last-minute compromise with gun control forces in order to avoid a bruising floor fight that also might imperil the bill.

Revisions Tightened

Under that deal, the Senate passed a second bill Tuesday tightening a few revisions that had set off howls of protest by law enforcement authorities when they were approved as part of the House package.

The changes, which McClure promised that his House counterparts would back, would restore rules that police say they need to trace weapons as well as protect themselves when they stop cars and trucks for traffic violations. One provision in the second bill would forbid drivers to store weapons in glove compartments.