Gun Control-
What's In, What's Out

Here's a sampling of what gun-control measures have made it on the books over the past decade or so, and some of those that were proposed but didn't make it.

• Require schools to teach anti-violence and conflict resolution programs.
  
• Ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons.
  
• Ban handguns on school grounds outright.
  
• Require the use of gun trigger locks.
  
• Require gun dealers to offer trigger locks to gun buyers.
  
• Require gun-show dealers who sell more than three guns to register as dealers.
  
• Require handgun buyers to take safety training courses.
  
• Require concealed-weapon permit applicants to demonstrate a need for the permit and to take safety training courses.
  
• Impose criminal penalties on homeowners whose unsafely stored gun was used by a child to hurt himself or herself, or another person.

1990

• Give city police the right to destroy seized handguns instead of publicly auction them.
  
• Put a large tax on and restrict sale of semi-automatic weapons.

1989

• Ban semi-automatic weapons.

1988

• Ban the sale of firearms that can't be detected by metal detectors and toy guns that look like the real thing.

1986

• Ban stun guns outright.
  
• Ban stun guns except for self-defense.

1985

• Regulate war games such as those played by neo-Nazis and other paramilitary organizations.

• Ban guns on school grounds unless the weapon is locked in a parked car or is carried by an adult with a concealed-weapons permit who is picking up or dropping off a student.
  
• Ban guns in courtrooms and areas near courtrooms, such as waiting rooms and hallways.
  Allow cities and counties to destroy seized handguns in exchange for paying a per-gun fee ($25 and up) to the state for public and non-profit shooting ranges.

1989

• Make it a misdemeanor for students to take BB guns to school.

1987

• Forbid local police departments from destroying seized firearms, and requiring them instead to sell them at public auctions.

1985

• Pre-empt all local gun-control laws, making gun ownership easier in scores of local communities.
  Ban guns in taverns.

1983

• Require a five-day waiting period before buying a handgun.

• Brady Bill, with a five-day waiting period for the purchase of a handgun, becomes law.
  
• A ban on 19 U.S.-made semi-automatic pistols, rifles and shotguns is debated.
  
• The Senate votes to continue the Civilian Marksmanship Program, a $2.5 million grant to help the National Rifle Association teach young people how to shoot.
  
• Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bill Bradley (D-NJ) propose a 25 percent sales tax on handguns, assault weapons and ammunition, and increasing federal gun dealer fees from $30 a year to $2,500. The projected $625 million raised annually would help inner-city hospitals treat gunshot victims.
  
• Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan of New York wants to raise the tax on wholesale handgun ammunition from 11 percent to 50 percent, slap a 10,000 percent tax on hollow-point ammunition - pushing the price per box to $150,000 - and increase the $10-a-year license for ammunition manufacturers to $10,000.

1991

• The day after the mass murder in Killeen, Texas, a ban on owning and selling 13 domestic semi-automatic weapons and some large-capacity magazines is stripped from an anti-crime package. Among those opposing the ban was Rep. Jolene Unsoeld (D-Olympia).

1990

• Rep. Jolene Unsoeld, a gun-control supporter while in the Washington state Legislature in the mid-'80s, goes to bat for the NRA by proposing an amendment to an anti-crime bill to protect U.S. manufacturers of assault weapons. Unsoeld, in the midst of a tough re-election campaign, gets a $4,950 contribution on the same day from the NRA.

1988

• The U.S. House votes 228-182 to kill the Brady Bill, which at the time called for a national seven-day waiting period before buying a handgun. Tom Foley is among those who opposed the bill.

1986

• Congress passes the McClure-Volkner Bill (a.k.a. the Firearms Owners' Protection Act), which allows mail-order gun sales and interstate rifle and shotgun sales. Also limits federal law enforcement officials to one unannounced inspection of a gun dealer's property per year.

1968

• The Gun Control Act becomes federal law, banning criminals, minors, the mentally ill, illegal aliens and drug addicts from legally buying handguns.

• Lake Forest Park, WA, stops issuing concealed weapons permits.
  
• The Green Lake and Mount Baker community councils call for tighter gun control and harsher penalties for gun crimes.
  
• Pittsburgh joins the more than dozen U.S. cities to ban assault weapons.
  
• Connecticut becomes the fourth state to ban assault rifles.
  
• Virginia limits handgun purchases to one a month per person.
  
• Florida makes it illegal for minors to have a gun except for hunting or marksmanship purposes.

1992

• Oregon voters try for an initiative to change the state Constitution to allow cities bigger than 40,000 to pass their own gun laws.

1990

• New Jersey becomes the second state to ban assault rifles.

1989

• California becomes the first state to ban assault rifles.

1987

• Florida abolishes 400 local gun-control laws, making it easier to legally carry a concealed weapon and eliminating nearly all gun purchase waiting periods. Shopkeepers throughout the "Gunshine State" started posting signs in the window saying, "Don't Carry Your Guns in Here."

1981

• Morton Grove, Ill., a Chicago suburb, bans all handguns.

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Contents on this page were published in the December/Jan, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.