Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 14, 1994 TAG: 9402140048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The House bill, sponsored by Richmond Democrat Jean Cunningham, would have made it a felony to buy, sell, possess or transport any of a list of 15 assault weapons.
Besides the already-illegal "streetsweeper" shotgun, which was banned last year, the forbidden list included Uzi submachine guns and the TEC-9 pistol made notorious by drug dealers.
Cunningham acknowledged that such weapons are used in no more than 4 percent of all crimes, but pointed out that they are much more likely to kill someone than ordinary handguns.
"Simply because the stats at this point don't support massive use doesn't mean it isn't time to act," she told the House Courts of Justice committee.
"This is a health and public safety issue," agreed Phyllis Bailey of the League of Women Voters. "Four percent [of] crimes is too high. It should be zero."
But Tom Evans, a lobbyist for the Firearms Dealers Association, argued that "nothing has been described that these weapons do that cannot be done by others."
Insisting that many hunters use semiautomatic weapons - including one that is an imitation of the AK-47 assault rifle - Evans said the ban would be "an undue burden. [It is] much ado about very little."
With little discussion, the committee voted 12-10 to shelve the bill and take it up again next year.
The Senate courts committee considered a bill introduced by Janet Howell, D-Reston, making it a crime to sell or give a realistic toy, BB or pellet gun to a child.
Despite testimony that police officers would shoot a youngster who pointed a realistic toy gun at them, senators were skeptical of the bill because it seemed to outlaw all toy weapons.
"The irony of it," said Chesapeake Republican Mark Earley, "is you'd actually make a toy gun more difficult to access than a real gun."
The proposal was defeated on a lopsided voice vote.
Several other matters had more success in Sunday's courts committees, including:
Requiring girls under age 18 to get consent from a parent or guardian before having an abortion. The House courts committee approved two such bills, one sponsored by Republican Clinton Miller of Woodstock and the other by Democrat Shirley Cooper of Yorktown.
Both bills were amended to allow a doctor to abort without consent if the mother is in danger of serious injury, even if the injury would eventually heal. Republicans will fight this provision on the House floor.
Also, Cooper's bill has a much broader interpretation of who the girl must notify: parents, aunts, uncles, counselors and so on. Miller's bill names only the legal guardian or the person acting as a parent.
Parental notification passed both houses of the legislature last year and was vetoed by then-Gov. Douglas Wilder. Gov. George Allen has said he will sign such a bill.
Lowering the blood-alcohol level that makes a driver legally drunk from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent. The Senate courts committee endorsed such a proposal, sponsored by Williamsburg Republican Thomas Norment.
The House committee endorsed a competing, Democratic proposal last week. The two are headed for a showdown because the Democrat version allows police to seize the license of a driver who fails a breath test. The Republican governor opposes that provision.
"Three strikes and you're out." The Senate courts committee endorsed three separate bills that would eliminate parole for anyone convicted of a third violent felony. Two were sponsored by Democrats, one by a Republican. The House of Delegates has perhaps a half-dozen similar proposals on its menu. Some form of this seems sure to pass; all that remains is awarding credit to some lucky bill sponsor.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB