Sessions Echoes Fears Over Assault Weapons but Does Not Urge a Ban

FBI Director William S. Sessions said Friday that semiautomatic assault weapons have a “very destructive impact on American society and the people,” but he declined to say whether they should be outlawed.

In the strongest statement yet from a Bush Administration official about the weapons, Sessions echoed concerns expressed by state and local law enforcement officials after the Jan. 17 killings of five California children with an AK-47 rifle.

“The presence of these weapons does have a very destructive impact on American society and the people,” Sessions told reporters.

“Tragedy after tragedy flows from” the weapons, he said. “People and law enforcement officers are victims of these crimes. I am sorry we are outgunned and outmanned in that respect.”

But Sessions would not say whether he agreed with other law enforcement officials who are calling for a ban on the weapons.

“It’s not my responsibility to make that kind of decision,” Sessions said. “That’s a political debate I will not participate in.”

President Bush has resisted calls for outlawing the weapons, many of which can be altered to become automatic rifles.

The President, however, said earlier this week that he wanted to find a method of preventing the criminal use of the weapons while doing “what’s right by the legitimate sportsman.”

Bush, a member of the National Rifle Assn., said he had asked William J. Bennett, who is directing the nation’s war on drugs, to study the proliferation of assault weapons.