Senate Backs Virtual Ban on Handguns for Juveniles

Reflecting a frenetic crime-fighting mood in Congress, the Senate voted decisively Tuesday to outlaw handgun possession for virtually everyone under 18 and demonstrated surprising support for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s proposed ban on the sale and manufacture of military-style assault weapons.

The tough juvenile gun law was among an array of measures--including some to combat gang violence and others to make gun-related offenses federal crimes--that were approved as the Senate continued its work on an omnibus crime bill intended to attack widespread violent crime in the nation.

So intense was the anti-crime sentiment that senators seemed to be competing with each other to see who could propose the toughest penalties.

Quick passage of the gun possession amendment on a 99-1 vote may signal that a similar bill in the House also will be approved, laying the groundwork for the first major gun control measure in a quarter of a century.

Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.) drafted the amendment with the help of the National Rifle Assn., which is staunchly opposed to gun control, and explained the group’s cooperation by saying: “Kids with guns don’t make sense.”

Under the measure, people under 18 would be permitted to own handguns only with written permission from a parent or guardian and only for use on a farm or ranch, for safety instruction or for hunting and marksmanship training.

The unexpectedly large vote on the ban came after senators discussed children carrying guns to school and teen-agers killed in drive-by shootings. Several of the lawmakers spoke of an 11-year-old girl from the gun-plagued District of Columbia who was reported to be so bereft of hope that she was planning her own funeral. Only Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) voted against the ban.

As the momentum and the night wore on, Feinstein (D-Calif.) scored a major coup for a freshman senator and for gun-control backers when the Senate refused by a narrow 51-49 margin to kill her assault weapon amendment, strongly indicating that she may have enough votes for approval, despite the strong opposition of the NRA and some members of Congress. But the Senate quit for the night without voting on the amendment itself and Senate leaders said they would take the matter up again today.

The Feinstein bill, although substantially watered down in compromises with the opposition, would ban the sale and manufacture of 14 semiautomatic assault weapons, including the AK-47 and the Colt AR-15, which was used last month by an avowed child-hater in El Cajon, Calif., to kill a woman and a 9-year-old girl.

Throughout the day Tuesday, opponents of the measure indicated that they might stage a filibuster to prevent a vote on the larger crime bill if the Feinstein amendment were approved.

But Feinstein refused to back down, saying: “Unfortunately, these (assault) weapons were designed for warfare--but the only battlefield in America is right here on the streets of our communities.”

So high were emotions over the issue that as voting proceeded near midnight on a motion by Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) to kill the amendment, senators clustered around the vote-counting clerks to watch the outcome.

As the final vote was cast for Feinstein by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-Colo.), a rancher who is part Cheyenne Indian, she cried out: “Oh!” and clenched her fists in victory.

Moments before, she engaged in a heated exchange with Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), who challenged her knowledge of the gun control issue. To that, she recounted having found San Francisco Mayor George Moscone shortly after he was assassinated in 1978 and said: “Senator, I know something about what firearms can do.”

Earlier in the day, in a development that could affect Los Angeles and several other cities in California, the Senate voted, 93 to 6, to cut off funds to cities that do not cooperate with federal authorities in locating and deporting illegal immigrants.

The vast expansion of federal authority over major crimes, including much stiffer sentences for drug dealers who exploit children to sell narcotics, drew a warning from Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said the effort could swamp federal courts with cases now handled by state and local prosecutors.

“There’s no amendment on the death penalty for jaywalking, so I guess there’s some restraint,” Biden said sarcastically.

Despite his opposition, however, solid bipartisan majorities backed the enlarged federal role as lawmakers apparently responded to a perceived demand by voters in the Nov. 2 off-year elections to get tough on criminals and lock them up longer.

By a 58-42 vote, the Senate also approved an amendment by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) that would make it a federal crime to use a gun in the commission of another crime if the gun had at any time traveled across a state line. D’Amato said that definition would cover about 90% of all guns.

Another D’Amato provision would allow a federal death penalty to be imposed for murder with a gun and would impose a mandatory 10-year sentence for using a gun in a crime. It would impose a 20-year sentence for discharging a gun in a crime and 30 years for using a machine gun or silencer in a crime.

“It’s time for real gun control,” D’Amato said. “Our criminal justice system has completely failed to bring gun violence under control.”

In an unprecedented extension of federal authority, the Senate also voted, 60 to 38, to give U.S. prosecutors the right to go after youth-gang members on federal charges if they commit murder, attempted murder, kidnaping, robbery or obstruction of justice or if they deal in drugs “with the intent to promote . . . a criminal street gang.”

An amendment offered by Dole and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, would make it a federal crime to participate in a criminal gang or induce others to join.

Other provisions would authorize $100 million to hire additional prosecutors and $100 million for grants to states and cities for efforts to prevent street gangs or drug use by young people.

“There is no excuse, no reason that can justify the vicious crimes of violence that gang members commit on our streets,” Dole said. “This amendment won’t stop gang activity overnight but it is a step in the right direction.”

In another expansion of federal jurisdiction, the Senate voted, 56 to 34, to make carjacking a federal crime and to authorize the death penalty if a person is killed during a carjacking.

Biden made a futile attempt to stop the tide of legislation, arguing that the federal government should provide more crime-fighting funds to states rather than take over their law enforcement roles. But the Senate was unpersuaded by that argument.

Meantime, on an issue affecting illegal immigrants, the Senate overwhelmingly approved an amendment by Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) that would deny any funds provided in the crime bill to cities with policies prohibiting their cooperation with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Under his proposal, the attorney general would have six months after the bill became law to report on states and localities failing to cooperate with the INS in its efforts to enforce the immigration laws.

“Surprisingly, these local laws or policies of non-cooperation have most often been adopted in some of the nation’s largest cities, which often have the most serious problems with illegal aliens,” Roth said, mentioning Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco as examples.

“My amendment does not require state or local governments to become responsible for enforcement of federal immigration laws,” Roth said. “But my amendment does say that those localities which have adopted official policies of non-cooperation . . . are not entitled to share in funds appropriated under this pending legislation.”

The House has approved a far smaller package of crime bills, with a price tag of less than $5 billion over five years, but has not yet taken up most of the Senate-passed provisions.