Three Shots At Crime

By Richard Lacayo

In many ways, the $22 billion crime bill moving through Congress this week is as flimsy as a tin badge. Around its core of solid proposals -- money to build more high-security prisons and help local governments hire more cops -- are the kind of specious gestures that are made whenever Washington tries to tap into voter sentiment on what is largely a state-and-local issue. If adopted in its present form, the bill will extend the death penalty to 47 mostly uncommon crimes and create 60 new federal crimes for acts that are already punished by state law. Among the offenses that will now be punishable by death: Fatal violence occurring on maritime platforms.

But in one respect, the bill may be a turning point. Bolstered by polls that said crime was a big issue this year and that voters were putting some of the blame on firearms, both houses of Congress adopted potent gun-control measures. Though any of them could be modified or killed when the full crime bill is voted on, they represent a genuine shift in the willingness of Congress -- which made its last serious attempt to curb guns in 1968 -- to deal with the problems of a nation where one person is shot every 14 minutes. "At long last Congress is getting the message," says Jeff Muchnick, legislative director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "Americans are fed up with the carnage, and they are demanding action."

One long-awaited action was passage of the Brady Bill (named for the presidential press secretary who was disabled by gunfire during the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan), which requires handgun purchasers to wait for a background check before taking possession of the weapon. After six years of debate and false starts, the House passed the bill by a vote of 238 to 189. A day earlier, by a 99 to 1 vote, the Senate had made it a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to sell handguns to minors or for minors to possess them under most circumstances. Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, the sponsor of the measure, had the best argument for the ban: "A gunshot is the leading cause of death for both black and white teenage boys in America." Later that night, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to forbid the manufacture, sale and future possession of 19 models of semiautomatic assault weapons and their copycats, including the AK-47 and the Intratec TEC-9, favorites of gang bangers everywhere.

Much of the new support for the assault-gun ban came from Senators representing Midwestern and Western states that are strongholds of the once invulnerable National Rifle Association. Colorado Democrat Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Montana Democrat Max Baucus, longtime NRA supporters, both voted for the ban.

Though neither man is up for re-election until 1998, NRA executive vice- president Wayne LaPierre has a warning for them: "We have a real long memory." He also claims that NRA suffered no real setbacks last week. It took no steps to oppose the ban on sales to minors, says LaPierre, who also expects that the assault-gun ban will not be part of the final anticrime act. As for the Brady Bill, it includes an NRA-supported amendment that will end the waiting period after five years through the establishment of a nationwide computer system to conduct instant background checks. "It's like living in a house that NRA gave them the blueprints for," LaPierre says. It may be harder, though, for NRA to feel that way now about the houses of Congress.

With reporting by Julie Johnson/Washington