DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230515

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   66 lines

ABUSERS IN MILITARY MUST DROP THEIR GUNS PENTAGON ISSUES POLICY ON DOMESTIC BATTERY LAW

Many men and women in the military are being told that they must turn in their weapons to comply with a law prohibiting gun ownership by people convicted of domestic abuse.

The Pentagon issued an interim policy Wednesday in line with a federal law passed more than a year ago.

Since carrying a weapon is essential to many jobs in the military, requiring such a step might mean that those service members affected will have to take on desk jobs.

All of the military's 1.4 million men and women are being required to fill out a form asking whether they had been convicted of such an offense. If they are not truthful, they could be prosecuted and thrown out of the service, officials said.

Frank Rush, the principal deputy assistant secretary for force management policy, said the Pentagon expects the number of people affected ``would be low,'' perhaps in the hundreds. Most who enter the military are ``young, unmarried and unlikely to bring such a conviction with them,'' he said. However, a senior officer speaking privately said the number could be as high as the thousands.

One of the authors of the legislation, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., criticized the Pentagon for being slow to act and for taking so long to find out how many people in the military might be abusers.

``It's understandably a complicated task for them, but they don't have the data that I frankly thought they would have by now,'' Lautenberg said.

He predicted that it would be close to two years since the law was passed before any meaningful data from the military is gathered.

``Meanwhile, women and children could be killed,'' he said.

Lautenberg said the military at least could have done sampling surveys in the past year.

Rush, at a briefing, said that there would be no exemption for people who are in potential combat zones, such as Bosnia, but that he did not expect the new policy to ``adversely impact military readiness.''

Anyone convicted of the misdemeanor crime will have their weapons and ammunition taken away immediately, he said.

Anyone convicted after Sept. 30, 1996, could be subject to discharge, or other punishment from his or her commander. If the conviction was before that date, which marks passage of the law, their guns will be taken away. But those people will be allowed to appeal the older convictions or even apply for a pardon, officials said.

Since tanks, crew-served aircraft and other major weapons systems are not considered firearms, those who work on them are not affected by the law.

Civilians who carry firearms, such as criminal investigators or Pentagon police who work for the military, also come under the law, and discussions are being held with their unions about the matter, officials said.

Lautenberg's measure initially exempted law enforcement personnel, but that was taken out by Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.

The law has created some concerns among local police forces and federal law enforcement officers as well, and Barr has been working with support from the Fraternal Order of Police to have the law's retroactivity repealed.

Enforcement of the law is complicated by the fact that not all states have crime databases that include information about convictions on misdemeanor domestic violence. KEYWORDS: MILITARY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

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