Chat with Chic, July 19, 1985

Chat with Chic A Report from Washington July 19, 1985 By U.S. Senator Chic Hecht All too often we in Congress have a short attention span. We see a problem, pass a law, and then, in a rush to consider other pressing business, neglect to monitor implementation of the law. When Congress passed the Gun Control Act of 1968, it was responding to a series of tragic assassinations. By controlling the sale, possession, and transfer of firearms, it was reasoned, violent crimes could be contained. However, exhaustive hearings have shown that not only does the Gun Control Act of 1968 fail in the goal of reducing violent firearms crime, it has actually abused the rights of honest gun dealers and owners. The vast majority of these people desire only to comply with the law, yet many of them have been trapped by technical violations which have little, if anything to do with the kind of crime this law was intended to curb. We in Congress have a duty to the citizens of this country to monitor the practical effect of the laws we pass to make sure enforce-ment actually furthers our original goals. I believe Senate bill 49, the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which I co-sponsored and supported during its Senate passage last week, will bring federal firearms law Chat with Chic, page 2 closer to the intent of Congress ? directing enforcement effort away from insignificant paperwork errors and toward willful violations of federal firearms law. Some of the provisions of the final version of S. 49, as passed by the Senate, include: requiring federal agents to give notice to gun dealers before conducting routine compliance inspections, eliminating the requirement for gun collectors to obtain dealers' licenses when selling weapons from their private collections, exempting ammunition dealers from record keeping requirements, removing the ban on interstate sales of firearms ? provided the sale does not violate laws of the buyer's or seller's state, and, allowing for the interstate transport of firearms when the firearms are unloaded and inaccessible ? in a car trunk, for example. All of these provisions, in my opinion, do further the goal directing emphasis away from insignificant errors and toward willful violations of federal firearms law, while at the same time taking into account the rights of honest firearm dealers and owners. It is unfortunate, however, that although this bill passed the Senate by the wide margin of 79 to 15, there is a good possibility that similar legislation will not be considered by the House of Representatives in the foreseeable future. For this reason I would encourage interested citizens such as yourselves to apprise your Representatives in the House of your concerns on this issue.