Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 9, 1993 TAG: 9309090332
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But the group took no stand on whether state leaders should push for such a ban, leaving that decision to the governor and whoever is elected in November to succeed him.
The draft legislation, part of a report due to Wilder next week, almost certainly will serve as the starting point for any 1994 legislative debate over banning the powerful weapons. Wilder will leave office in the first week of the '94 legislative session.
Four states - California, Hawaii, New Jersey and Connecticut - have banned assault weapons, popularly viewed as high-powered guns capable of quickly firing many bullets.
The governor's office provided no clue about Wilder's intentions in regard to a ban, and Secretary of Public Safety O. Randolph Rollins also was circumspect.
Facts gathered by the task force in three months of work suggest that a ban merits "serious consideration," Rollins said. Strong public support for a ban, the destructive power of assault weapons, their intimidating nature and their questionable role in self-defense all argue for a ban, he said.
"There's been a change in the public attitude toward availability of guns of all sorts," he said.
Under the proposal, importing, purchasing, owning, selling, possessing or transferring such weapons would be a Class 6 felony, carrying a prison term of up to five years.
The task force made several minor adjustments to their draft following a hour-long public hearing. All but two of the speakers opposed banning assault weapons, and most said trying to define them is almost impossible.
The task force proposal is "poorly drafted and not well designed," said Michael Saporito of Winter Haven, Fla., a former officer in a wholesale firearms company who headed a 1990 Florida task force on assault weapons. Saporito, now chairman of the American Shooting Sports Council, said the Florida task force - half gun-control opponents and half advocates - concluded that a legally sound definition could not be drawn.
\ ASSAULT WEAPONS\ Proposal would ban these firearms\ \ A.A. Arms Model AP-9 pistol\ A.A. Arms Model AR9 rifle\ Avtomat: Kalashnikov rifle (AK-47, Type 56 and 56s)\ Calico Model M-900 assault rifle\ Calico Model M-950 pistol\ Calico Model M-951 rifle\ Calico Model M110\ Intratec Tec-9 pistol\ Intratec Tec-22 pistol\ S.W.D. Inc. Cobray M-11 9 mm pistol\ SAP M-10 pistol\ SM 11 A1 pistol\ Uzi semiautomatic Striker 12 and "Streetsweeper" shotgun
by CNB