Senate Backs Ban on Undetectable Plastic Guns

The Senate voted Wednesday to outlaw the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns made from plastic or other materials that could pass through metal detectors.

The legislation, primarily aimed at terrorists and air pirates, also would require that all toy guns have orange plugs in their barrels so they cannot be mistaken for real weapons.

“There is no doubt that in the hands of terrorists and other criminals, undetectable weapons are a clear threat,” said Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who sponsored the bill along with Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio).

The bill on plastic firearms, passed on a voice vote, is similar to legislation approved 413 to 4 in the House earlier this month. Differences will have to be resolved before the measure is sent to President Reagan. The House has not passed any toy-gun legislation, but Senate aides were optimistic that that provision would survive the conference committee.

Backed by Police, NRA

Law enforcement groups lobbied heavily for the legislation and the National Rifle Assn., after initial reluctance, went along with the approach.

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas, a sponsor of the amendment on toy guns, said that realistic toy guns “have been used in the commission of crimes, such as bank robbery, hostage takings and street crime.”

Dole also said: “In a well-publicized case, a police officer in California accidentally shot a youth playing with a toy laser gun after mistaking the toy for a firearm.”

No plastic guns such as the bill would prohibit are being made. One company that holds a patent to develop plastic weapons, Red Eye Arms of Winter Park, Fla., said it is interested in developing such firearms only for military use.