Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305030265
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID B. KOPEL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There's no more liberal jurisdiction in the United States than Madison, Wis. Progressive magazine is published there. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala perfected the art of political correctness while running the University of Wisconsin.
So when the Madison Common Council decided to ask voters if they wanted to outlaw handguns in the city, most pundits expected that the prohibition forces would win in a landslide.
But to everyone's surprise, Madison rejected handgun prohibition in an April 6 vote. CBS News, which had been closely following the election contest, curiously did not find time to run a story about the election results.
Out in bedrock America, gun-control lobbyists are getting nowhere. Gun restrictions have gone down to defeat for the umpteenth time in the legislatures of Colorado, Utah, Florida, New Mexico, West Virginia, Georgia, Nebraska, Washington, Illinois and Kansas. Even in more cosmopolitan Maryland and New York, gun-control laws strongly supported by Govs. Schaefer and Cuomo have been killed.
Meanwhile, laws to allow citizens to carry licensed handguns for protection are moving forward in Wyoming, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas. Arkansas has enacted pre-emptive legislation to outlaw local gun controls, and a similar proposal has passed both houses of the Indiana legislature.
Against all the successes of the pro-rights forces, the gun-control lobbies can chalk up only two victories. Luckily for the gun controllers, both victories happened next to national media centers, so the media reported that the gun controllers had a 2-0 record, whereas the real score is about 2-12.
Even the gun-control lobby's two wins are mixed blessings. The one-handgun-a-month bill passed in Virginia mainly because it was so marginal. Very few handgun buyers purchase two guns at a time.
In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Jim Florio showed his political skills by defeating a National Rifle Association-backed effort to repeal the state's "assault weapon" ban (which applies even to BB guns). The victory must be cold comfort for Florio, however, since the enactment of a gun-confiscation law in 1990 helped cost his party control of the New Jersey legislature.
At the national level, the odds look slim that much gun control could make it past a Senate filibuster. The defeats of pro-control Sens. Terry Sanford, D-N.C., and Wyche Fowler, D-Ga., in close elections in which the gun issue was crucial sent a clear warning to other senators in marginal seats. Conversely, strong support from gun owners helped Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Al D'Amato, R-N.Y., retain their seats against strong challenges.
The one gun-control bill that might make it through the U.S. Senate would be a weakened version of the Brady Bill. Even then, the gun-control lobby's victory would be temporary. As introduced in the new Congress, the Brady five-government- working-day waiting period would automatically disappear in no more than five years and be replaced by the NRA alternative of an instant, point-of-sale computer check of gun buyers.
Nearly as unnoticed as the defeats of gun control in Madison and in various state legislatures have been gun-control reversals in state courts. In February, Denver's "assault weapon" ban was thrown out by a Colorado state court, on the grounds that it was too vague and violated the right to bear arms. A while before that, a Georgia court had thrown out an Atlanta "assault weapon" ban on constitutional grounds, and the West Virginia Supreme Court nixed a law forbidding the carrying of concealed handguns without a permit.
Since the late 1970s, gun-control lobbyists have been feeding a credulous press stories of the supposed collapse of the pro-Second Amendment movement. Supporters of the right to bear arms, including the NRA, aren't invincible, and never have been. But the unreported political and judicial action around the country suggests that we're in for a future of repealing old gun laws, rather than adding new ones.
David B. Kopel is author of "The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Conrols of Other Democracies?," published by Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank in Washington, D.C.
930503 KOPEL STORY GUNS TOPIC KEYWORD DESK AUTHOR:RICHERT05/03/93 A SUB HED oped column (kopel) for sun may 2, htk guns: headline byline author
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