
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230635
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN UPHELD

The Senate upheld a ban on nine semiautomatic assault weapons in its omnibus crime bill today, handing a surprising defeat to the National Rifle Association.

It voted 52-48 against a move to strike the weapons ban from the bill.

"These are combat weapons," Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., said before the Senate vote.

The outcome represented a stunning setback for the National Rifle Association, which had lobbied hard to kill the curbs. Supporters of the ban had said over the weekend they held little hope of winning.

They said they expected to face opposition on the campaign trail this fall because of the legislation.

Senate critics called for tougher criminal penalties in place of curbs on guns.

"Let's try 'em and fry 'em," Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., told the Senate Tuesday night. "That will start a lot of action in the United States and we won't have to worry about this stuff."

DeConcini, the chief sponsor of the restrictions, scoffed at claims that they would place a burden on the hunters. He pointed to a picture of a Street Sweeper, a sinister-looking, round-drummed semiautomatic shotgun of African origin that he called "an apartheid control weapon."

"It's not going to be used on deer because it would absolutely blow the deer to pieces," DeConcini said. But Hatch told the Senate that "there is nothing in the Constitution that limits the 2nd Amendment to ownership of guns for hunting."

by CNB