Shooting Holes in Gun Control

An official of the National Rifle Assn. says the only effect of a proposal to limit gun sales to one per person each month would be to hurt gun collectors. What nonsense. California Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) had it right when he said that his proposed one-a-month limit would dry up the source of guns for illegal peddlers of weapons on the streets. Knox’s bill has passed the state Assembly and its first committee test in the Senate. It is one of a number of gun bills headed for certain approval this year, including a tough new assault weapons ban that Gov. Gray Davis has promised to sign.

This record puts the California Legislature well ahead of Congress, where passing gun control measures has picked up only a modicum of momentum since the Littleton, Colo., high school massacre. The NRA and other pro-gun groups are resisting every step of the way, working closely with their allies in the House to riddle anti-gun legislation with killer loopholes.

Current action is focused in the House, with the first votes on gun control amendments to the juvenile justice bill expected in the middle of the week. If gun control advocates on both sides of the aisle hang together, and if they have the vigorous support of the Clinton administration, they can stop attempts to blunt the effectiveness of the proposed legislation.

The minimum the House should accept on controls is matching the level of gun restraints adopted by the Senate in late May. One Senate provision, requiring background checks on all buyers at gun shows, eked through when Vice President Al Gore voted to break a 50-50 tie. Now, the NRA and its supporters are trying to scale back the three-day background check for gun show purchases to 24 hours and to eliminate much of the record keeping that would put real teeth in the law.

A ban on imports of high-capacity assault weapon clips that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) finally muscled through the Senate also faces resistance. These clips cannot be made in this country, and there is no justification for letting them flood in from foreign countries.

The NRA and its supporters keep poking and prodding for loopholes in restrictive laws, insisting that gun purchases will be inconvenient if laws are not loosened. But that’s the goal here. Nothing about buying guns and ammunition should be convenient. Each loophole invites further tragedy.