Defeat for a Thin Blue Line

By William R. Doerner.

The police were on hand in full force. More than 100 blue-uniformed officers, representing major law-enforcement associations, formed an accusatory gauntlet outside the House of Representatives as Congressmen filed in to consider a bill to loosen federal gun controls. Later, after checking their own side arms, the police filled two sections of the spectators' gallery to watch the debate. Joining them was Sarah Brady, wife of White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot and partly paralyzed during John Hinckley's 1981 attack on President Reagan.

Less visible but more formidable was the National Rifle Association, the powerful 3 million-member lobby that had pushed for looser gun controls with a $1.6 million campaign. In the end, N.R.A. muscle spoke louder than the policemen's protests. By a vote of 286 to 136, the House markedly weakened federal regulation of interstate gun trafficking, rewriting restrictions that had been passed in 1968 following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The outcome, said Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, was "a genuine disgrace. It's a classic example of the power of big money and a well-orchestrated campaign by a narrow interest."

The revised law, which is backed by the Administration, would end federal controls on the sale and transport of rifles and shotguns and would simplify record-keeping requirements for gun dealers, allowing them to transfer - firearms to "private collections" and sell them unrecorded. Dealers would also be protected from federal prosecution under remaining gun-law restrictions unless authorities can prove that their violations are "willful."

The House tossed a bone to gun-control advocates by continuing the ban on the sale of handguns by dealers in one state to residents of another, a provision strongly endorsed by police organizations. The bill also strengthens penalties for the use of silencers and prohibits the sale of new and used machine guns. The handgun provision means that the bill will have to return to the Senate, which passed a less restrictive version in July, also after vigorous N.R.A. lobbying.

Supporters of liberalizing the 1968 law argue that it was used unfairly against gun dealers who failed to keep adequate records of the sale of firearms and ammunition. The lobby's most effective argument for weakening gun control was still the well-worn Second Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms. Said Democratic Congressman Harold L. Volkmer of Missouri, sponsor of the House measure: "This body is finally discussing what will truly return constitutional rights to the citizens of this country."

But police officers, who had traditionally been allied with the N.R.A., see weaker gun controls as an increased threat to their lives. Pointing to the police in the galleries, Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, a longtime gun foe, declared, "They are here because they recognize that there were 700 or so killed in the last decade (by handguns), and they wonder whether or not they might be next." Only a day after the House action, two FBI agents were killed and five others wounded in Miami as they tried to question two bank robbery suspects who turned on them with an automatic and a shotgun. The casualties were the worst ever suffered by the FBI in a single incident.

With reporting by John E. Yang/Washington