Feinstein Targets Loopholes in Assault Weapons Ban

In the first of a series of actions aimed at curbing the spread of assault weapons, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has urged President Clinton and law enforcement authorities to help close legal loopholes that have facilitated the proliferation of thousands of the fearsome, rapid-fire guns.

“There needs to be . . . a national statement that we don’t want these kinds of weapons on the streets,” the California Democrat said in an interview Tuesday.

The United States stands alone among the world’s major industrialized powers in allowing widespread civilian ownership of military-style assault weapons.

Feinstein, who authored the federal assault weapon law in 1994, also has appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to block the proposed export to a U.S. gun manufacturer of Uzi and Galil assault weapons--an appeal that the Israeli government says it is taking seriously because of the carnage for which the weapons have become notorious.

“It’s obvious that we are not happy when an Israeli weapon is used in a negative cause,” Israeli government spokesman Gadi Baltiansky said Tuesday. “We share with Sen. Feinstein the sorrow of any victim of violence.”

In recent days, Feinstein has met with Clinton and Vice President Al Gore in what staffers described as a “strategizing” session to address shortcomings in laws restricting military-style assault weapons.

At the White House, Rahm Emmanuel, assistant to the president, said only that Clinton and Feinstein had a “good discussion” on how to strengthen the assault-weapons ban.

Feinstein also has met with federal law enforcement officials, including John Magaw, director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, to discuss how the government might better crack down on weapons that many believe have no business in civilian hands because of their large firing capacity and history of felling multiple victims.

Feinstein’s actions come in response to a series in The Times last month revealing deep flaws in federal and state assault weapon laws. Among other things, the newspaper found that gun makers have circumvented state and federal laws by flooding the country with legal copycat assault weapons that are cosmetically different from restricted firearms but function with lethal similarity.

“These companies are so craven they can get around any legislation by changing the characteristics of the weapon,” Feinstein said.

Although the senator said she plans to pursue several ways to reduce the dangers posed by assault weapons, she declined to elaborate, except to say that new legislation may be one avenue--a move that assuredly would trigger strong opposition from such gun interests as the National Rifle Assn.

For now, as a first step, Feinstein said she is focusing chiefly on persuading the Israeli government and U.S. officials to block the export of tens of thousands of modified Uzi and Galil assault rifles from a government-owned munitions company to U.S. gun maker O.F. Mossberg & Sons, which would market them to civilians.

The proposed transaction was detailed in The Times’ series.

Federal law prohibits the importation and sale for civilian use of Uzis and Galils, which are similar to AK-47s. But the Uzis and Galils involved in the proposed transaction have been slightly reconfigured to fall outside the law.

“I’m shocked that the Israeli state-owned military munitions company would not have a better understanding of the sensitivity to these weapons floating around the streets of America,” Feinstein said Tuesday. “Technically, the guns are legal under the assault weapons ban because they have been modified.”

In a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Feinstein cited the death of James Guelff, a San Francisco police officer and father of two who was shot in 1994 by an assailant whose arsenal included a semiautomatic Uzi and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

“I find it sadly ironic,” Feinstein wrote, “that even as American military equipment and assistance travels to Israel intended to preserve peace and save lives, an Israeli weapons manufacturer is preparing to sell military-style assault weapons in the United States that are designed not to protect, but to kill.”

Feinstein sent copies of her letter to 18 major American Jewish organizations, whose backing she is seeking. An affiliate of one of those groups--the Jewish Council for Public Affairs--is scheduled to meet with the prime minister in Jerusalem today, according to a top Feinstein aide.

In a meeting with President Clinton on Monday, Feinstein urged him to issue an executive order to cancel the proposed arms deal. Late Tuesday, Feinstein, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was circulating a petition among Senate colleagues calling upon Clinton to intervene.

Israeli government spokesman Baltiansky said Tuesday that Netanyahu had received and read a copy of Feinstein’s letter. Netanyahu, the spokesman said, is considering what “he can and can’t do legally.”

“And, of course, the moral aspects will be looked at as well,” Baltiansky said.

At the same time, Baltiansky pointed out, the proposed arms transaction was in accord with U.S. laws and approved by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms.

A bureau spokesman said the agency had no choice but to sign off on the importation of the weapons because, technically, they were legalized knockoffs of restricted firearms. “We just follow the laws that Congress makes,” the spokesman said.

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Times staff writer Elizabeth Shogren in Washington contributed to this report.