Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240252
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"There are too many bullet holes in blue suits. There are too many women weeping over coffins. There are too many children without fathers," said Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.
The 52-48 vote came as a sharp defeat for the National Rifle Association, which had lobbied to kill the curbs in the wide-ranging bill. Officials of the Fraternal Order of Police and other law-enforcement groups had called on the Senate to support the restrictions.
The Bush administration opposes the restrictions, which would bar the import of five foreign-made assault weapons and outlaw U.S. manufacture of four others.
The vote came as the Senate debated the larger crime bill that calls for the death penalty for 30 federal crimes, including presidential assassination.
Lawmakers said they hoped for a final vote on the measure before a scheduled Memorial Day recess.
The narrow margin on the semiautomatic weapons provision prompted critics to call for a quick second vote in an effort to reverse the decision. The Senate voted 50-49 not to reconsider.
On the initial roll call, nine Republicans joined 43 Democrats in upholding the curbs, while 12 Democrats and 36 Republicans sought to delete them.
In a tactical move, Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., voted to uphold the restrictions even though he has been a critic of firearms curbs. Under Senate rules, only a lawmaker on the winning side can move to reconsider a vote, and Dole went on to make that motion.
When the Senate voted to reconsider, Dole switched and joined the critics of restrictions.
The only other difference in the two roll calls was Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., who had voted on DeConcini's side the first time. Chafee was absent on the reconsideration vote because he went to Providence for surgery, aides said.
Other provisions would restore the death penalty for 30 federal crimes including presidential assassination. They would overhaul the system under which courts review the constitutionality of criminal trials and allow courts to consider evidence gathered with flawed warrants if police acted in good faith.
It would fine-tune the money-laundering laws and allow death-row inmates to use statistics in appeals claiming their sentences were the result of racial discrimination.
The bill originally was part of the Bush administration's anti-crime package, but has long since been rewritten by majority Democrats in the Senate. The administration now opposes most of the bill's provision.
There is no corresponding legislation on the House calendar.
The campaign for restrictions on assault weapons began in January 1989 when a deranged man with an AK-47 rifle opened fire on a Stockton, Calif., schoolyard, leaving five dead and 30 wounded.
by CNB