But There Is an Answer

President Bush still is dithering about gun control.

Faced with mounting public and police pressure to regulate the military assault weapons that have turned urban streets and school yards into charnel houses, the President said Monday, “The country needs to know that there is some answer to this. And I don’t yet know what it is.”

Bush went on to tell a group of state legislators visiting the White House that he suspects the solution to the assault-weapon problem “is going to be found in various ways out in the states” rather than in Washington.

This won’t do. The stakes here are literally life and death. But the problem itself is not complex. What is required is that the U.S. government immediately ban the import of new assault weapons and preferably outlaw, or closely regulate, those already in private hands.

Talk of foisting this obvious federal responsibility onto the states or of wrestling with imagined constitutional inhibitions to these common-sensical steps is simply a lot of politically expedient chat, designed to hold the gun lobby zealots at bay.

If Bush truly is at a loss on how to cope with this crisis, we suggest he send over to the Congress for copies of bills recently introduced by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio).

Both are at great pains to define military-style assault weapons precisely. Their proposals would not touch semiautomatic rifles or shotguns designed for a legitimate sporting purpose. We prefer Berman’s bill--HR 669--which simply would ban the import, resale and possession of all assault weapons. Metzenbaum’s measure--S386--also would forbid the import of new assault weapons, but would require that those now in private hands be registered. If the registered guns are resold, the purchaser would have to undergo the sort of rigorous background check now required on buyers of machine guns.

Decades ago, Congress, concerned about declining migratory waterfowl populations, voted to require hunters using semiautomatic and pump shotguns to plug their magazines so they would hold no more than three shells. It is time for this government to demonstrate that it has as least as much concern for people as it does for ducks.