Have Weapons, Will Shoot

By Laurence I. Barrett

Brandishing a Chinese-made AK-47 semiautomatic rifle, a man rose from his seat at a hearing of the California assembly in Sacramento last week and announced to some 80 startled listeners, "Ladies and gentlemen, take a look at your watches and start counting. You are lucky that I am the attorney general and not some nut. Because if I had the ammunition, I could shoot every member of the assembly by the time I finish this sentence -- about 20 seconds."

California Attorney General John Van de Kamp could be forgiven his 20 seconds of melodrama. His state was still reeling from the massacre wrought when a crazed man murdered five children in a Stockton schoolyard, wounded 29 others and a teacher, and then killed himself with a pistol.

Van de Kamp was making a sobering point: the nation's body count keeps mounting as reckless gunplay continues at an alarming rate. In Bethesda, Md., last week, an emotionally disturbed office worker shot and killed three people and then committed suicide by turning his weapon on himself. An exchange of hard looks in a Woodbridge, Va., high school corridor ended when a visiting teenager shot a student in the groin. A man who was asked to leave a sweet-16 party took his revenge by spraying a New York City subway platform with a 9-mm automatic handgun, wounding six.

The District of Columbia alone has counted 75 homicides during the first 45 days of 1989, many involving guns. In one wild 24-hour period last Tuesday, 13 people were killed or wounded. Some of these shootings were committed by "ordinary" citizens; others could be tied to drug criminals, who continue to produce their own separate necrology, turning inner cities into so many Dodge Cities. Then there are the now familiar cases of children found carrying weapons to the classroom; only last week a New York City fifth-grader brought a sawed-off shotgun to school.

To the relief of many, what is also finally on the increase is the feeling among Americans that enough is enough. A TIME/CNN poll conducted by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman last week found that 86% of those interviewed believe crime is getting worse and 84% think violence resulting from the use of guns is becoming a bigger problem. Fully 57% worry about becoming victims, 22% say they or members of their families have been threatened by someone with a gun, and 30% are so fearful of being assaulted on the street that they would just as soon carry a gun themselves. An overwhelming 89% favor a two-week waiting period for gun purchasers, and 65% want stricter gun-control laws.

While Americans would welcome harsher gun-control measures, they are skeptical and ambivalent on the subject. Most do not want to ban gun possession entirely; 84% say people have a right to own guns, perhaps because 53% feel they are inadequately protected by police. As for semiautomatic weapons, 51% would make civilian ownership of these guns illegal. In any case, 48% believe new restrictions would not reduce the amount of violence.

Aware that the public is getting fed up, legislators at the city, state and federal levels are proposing more restrictive rules. To dramatize the problem, California radio announcer Chris Collins, after collecting a batch of assault- style rifles from his listeners, paired up in Sacramento with Assembly Speaker Willie Brown to smash the weapons with a steamroller. Less dramatically but nonetheless significantly, the Washington city council has made it a misdemeanor to bring a firearm within 500 ft. of a public school or a school event. The council is considering making handgun manufacturers and distributors liable for injuries inflicted by their products. This measure could encounter serious legal obstacles. For example, Colt Industries, manufacturers of the AR-15 assault rifle, filed suit to protest a newly passed Los Angeles law banning the sale of paramilitary semiautomatic rifles -- then last week dropped the case.

Whatever they may try, gun-control forces will have to contend with the National Rifle Association, which has usually been successful in fighting off tough regulation. But gun opponents have been improving their political / skills. Last fall they prevailed in a Maryland referendum battle that ended with approval of a curb on cheap handguns. This prompted the N.R.A., which had scheduled a national convention in Baltimore in 1992, to look for another site. Wherever the N.R.A. meets, it may want to discuss a Yankelovich finding indicating that 54% of Americans think the organization "has too much influence in keeping stricter gun-control laws from being passed."

Perhaps the one man in the U.S. who more than any other could steer his brethren in a more benign direction is N.R.A. life member George Bush. Yet Bush remains opposed to tougher gun laws, even those that would ban or restrict the sale of assault weapons. Last Thursday he reiterated that position, adding, "I would strongly go after the criminals who use these guns . . . The states have a lot of laws on these things. Let them enforce them." That view could change, however. The First Lady has different ideas. Barbara Bush told a reporter that she is "afraid" of guns and would "absolutely" favor banning assault weapons. This could make for some very interesting pillow talk.

With reporting by Jerome Cramer/Washington and Elaine Lafferty/Los Angeles