Assault Weapon Ban Added Onto Senate Crime Bill

The Senate approved the most far-reaching gun control measure in 25 years Wednesday, voting by a surprisingly large margin to ban the future sale, manufacture and possession of rapid-fire assault weapons.

The ban, which faces an uphill fight in the House, came in a 56-43 vote as the Senate neared adoption of a record $22-billion crime-fighting bill that features a provision to put 100,000 more police on the streets.

It was among a host of other amendments to the omnibus crime bill that cleared the Senate Wednesday, including one that would authorize the death penalty for drug kingpins.

With bipartisan approval of the comprehensive crime bill certain, Senate leaders agreed late Wednesday to vote today on final passage and send it to conference committee to be reconciled with a less ambitious House bill. A vote also is expected today on whether to revive the law that created an independent counsel to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by high government officials. The law expired late last year when Republicans, angered by the conduct of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, blocked efforts to reauthorize it.

Senate leaders also said that they would bring up the House-approved measure known as the Brady bill, which would impose a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases to allow police to make a background check on prospective buyers.

President Clinton, the first chief executive to endorse this legislation, has said that he hopes to sign it into law before Congress adjourns for the year Wednesday.

Politically the vote on the assault weapon ban was a triumph for freshman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), principal sponsor of the amendment, who pressed hard for it in the face of vehement opposition from anti-gun control members of the Senate and the powerful National Rifle Assn.

While the measure would have no effect on the estimated 1 million military-style weapons already in existence, it would make illegal their future manufacture, sale or possession in this country. Included are 19 weapons and copycat models--among them the notorious AK-47--along with ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

The legislation exempts 650 types of guns used by hunters and other sporting enthusiasts.

“This legislation is a major step forward,” Feinstein said after the vote. “It will stop the flood of semiautomatic assault weapons in the streets of America.”

She said, however, that gaining House approval will be more difficult because the NRA appears to hold more sway over lawmakers in that chamber, who face election every two years.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted that crime-fighting sentiment is high in both chambers of Congress. “It will be an uphill fight in the House, but I believe the wave is moving, and I believe this (ban) will pass.”

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno hailed the Senate vote and urged swift approval by the House.

“America feels very strongly about this legislation. . . . We can’t stop now,” she said.

Feinstein’s amendment had survived a preliminary test last week by a far closer vote of 51 to 49. But by Wednesday, she had picked up support from five more Republicans. In all, 46 Democrats and 10 GOP lawmakers voted for it, while 34 Republicans and nine Democrats opposed it. One Democratic senator was absent.

During the earlier debate, Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) cited the rampage July 1 at a San Francisco law firm in which eight people were killed by a man armed with an assault weapon. They also pointed to the use of a similar weapon in an attack in El Cajon on Oct. 30, in which a woman and a 9-year-old girl were killed.

“This measure is not about restricting the rights of responsible people who collect or hunt,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Rather, this legislation is geared solely toward stopping semiautomatic assault weapons, which can fire 30 to 50 rounds of ammunition within seconds, from further flooding onto our streets and to reduce their numbers over time.”

The Senate already has adopted other amendments that would outlaw the possession of handguns by almost all youngsters under 18 and to make selling handguns to anyone younger than 18 a federal crime.

It also approved another measure that would increase federal penalties sharply for nearly all crimes committed with a gun, including crimes that violate state but not federal law.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said that he hopes to bring to the floor a House-passed bill to impose a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases after the omnibus crime bill is approved.

The House has adopted a smaller package of crime bills. Among the chief features are one to put 50,000 more police on the streets and another to authorize drug treatment for federal and state prisoners.

A Senate-House conference committee will attempt to produce a compromise between the two chambers’ bills, but no final piece of legislation is expected to be ready this year.

The Senate crime bill, the most comprehensive anti-crime package it has ever considered, would authorize $9 billion to put 100,000 more police officers on the street over five years and earmark $6 billion for the construction of new regional prisons, boot camps and other facilities for convicted criminals.

In other action Wednesday, the Senate approved, 74 to 25, the death penalty for drug kingpins--those found to have manufactured or distributed drugs in excess of specified quantities or to have gross receipts of at least $20 million from drugs during any 12-month period. It rejected, 76 to 24, a proposal to substitute life imprisonment without parole for the death penalty in 47 additional federal crimes.

Acting by voice vote, the Senate barred federal judges from setting caps on prison populations that would force release of prisoners to avoid crowding.

Times staff writer Glenn F. Bunting contributed to this story.

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