Gun advocates are eager to bid good riddance to what they say is flawed, ineffective legislation, and Utah's congressional delegation is just as willing to let it slide into oblivion.
“We've lived with it now for almost 10 years, and the data shows it hasn't affected crime, so we're talking about limiting rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Rep. Jim Matheson, the delegation's only Democrat and a member of the National Rifle Association.
Republican House leaders are unlikely to allow a vote on extending the ban before it expires Sept. 13, although gun control groups backed by police organizations are unwilling to let the Clinton-era ban go without a fight.
Marla Kennedy, executive director of the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, says the lack of congressional support “means they don't stand behind their president and they don't support taking cop-killer weapons off the market."
“The police are the first line of defense to protect the public and I know I'm not willing to put them in that line of fire. If our congressional delegation is, that's just too bad."
The 1994 Crime Bill specifically banned 19 types of guns as well as clips holding more than 10 rounds. It was passed after a series of multiple-victim shootings with the weapons in the preceding years and signed into law by President Clinton.
President Bush supports extending the ban, but has not pressured House leaders to act. Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has chastised Bush for not making renewal of the weapon ban a higher priority.
In March, Kerry and 51 other senators voted for an amendment to extend the ban for 10 years. Both Sen. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett voted against the extension. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was so disgusted with the amendments that he helped the Senate defeat his bill, which had sought to give gun makers immunity from lawsuits.
The ban "doesn't make a hill of beans worth of sense. What makes a difference is to really get tough on people who use weapons in the use of crimes,” Hatch said in an interview. “That's the way to do it. It isn't to have some glossy bill that says this is going to solve all problems when there are all kinds of rifles or weapons that are better than those that are banned.”
One of the prohibited weapons is the Action Arms Israeli Military Industries Galil, a menacing looking weapon, with a thin, black steel barrel, a collapsible stock, a flash suppressor and curved bullet clips that can hold up to 100 rounds. It was a favorite of the Israeli army and was one of the weapons covered in the ban.
Walk into Doug's Shoot 'n Sport on Redwood Road and it can be yours for $3,500 and a background check.
That is because the law grandfathered in banned weapons manufactured before Clinton signed the law. They cost a little more than before the ban, says store manager Dave Larsen, but they're still available and perhaps even in more demand.
“If they banned red Volkswagen Beetles, everyone would want a red Volkswagen Beetle,” he explains.
Other companies simply renamed or slightly retooled their weapons to escape the prohibition. For example, the Bushmaster XM-15 that John Allen Mohammad and Lee Boyd Malvo used in sniper attacks on the Washington, D.C., area in 2002 was a modified version of the banned Colt AR-15.
“Calling it an assault gun ban is a misnomer,” said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. Both he and his Republican colleague, Rep. Rob Bishop, who lobbied for gun interests in Utah, say the ban should just expire. “Guns aren't the problem,” Cannon said.
Banning a hodgepodge of weapons is the wrong approach to fighting crime, agrees Larsen, saying criminals will find a way to get the guns.
“If you're going to stop people from digging holes you don't ban the shovels," he says. “We shouldn't be spending money on something that doesn't have any benefit. The crime bill has no benefit. Spend the money somewhere else, on interdiction programs or to build another jail.”
There is, not surprisingly, disagreement over whether the ban has worked. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence cites Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms data showing a dramatic drop in the number of weapons subject to ATF traces, in which the bureau tracks the source of a weapon used in a crime or illegally possessed.
The NRA counters that the figures are unreliable and distort the data. They cite studies asserting that assault weapons were used in a small fraction of crimes.
A Centers for Disease Control review of studies on the effectiveness of gun laws, including gun bans, found the evidence to be inconclusive.
