Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 14, 1993 TAG: 9303150536
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
THEY'RE BIG AND UGLY AND ON THE HIT LIST
In the consumer catalog of firearms, these guns list as the big, the bad and the ugly.The "Street Sweeper" shotgun: 36 inches of raw, untamed firepower, resembling a paste wax can fitted with a barrel and a folding stock. A wind-up butterfly key that activates the cylinder adds a toylike touch.
The Tec-9 pistol: a semiautomatic that might double for a cordless power drill, except for the rectangular magazine that extends straight down from its middle and - if rapidly changed - allows a spray of 100 or so bullets per minute.
The Cobray M-11, the Mac-10, the AK-47, the Calico M-950, the Uzi pistol, the Uzi carbine. And the list goes on.
Those and a few dozen more guns are the focus of a slowly growing national movement to ban or limit civilian use of assault weapons - a drive that reached Virginia during the 1993 legislature and will resurface when state lawmakers come back to town April 7.
Abandoning its traditional reticence on gun control, the General Assembly voted last month to ban the purchase, sale, transfer or import of Street Sweepers. Gov. Douglas Wilder says he'll ask the lawmakers next month to ban Tec-9s as well.
Such acts are narrow versions of much broader bans on assault weapons already adopted by California, New Jersey, Hawaii and a couple of dozen cities, including Atlanta, New York and Washington, D.C. At issue are a group of guns, automatic and semiautomatic, originally intended to spray ammunition at an enemy during combat.
Wilder's recommendation is certain to spur controversy because of what both sides in the debate acknowledge: The Street Sweeper and the Tec-9 are only part of the more comprehensive list of assault weapons that gun-control activists would prefer to ban.
"The statement has been made over and over again: `We've got to go for what we can get rather than what we would want,' " complained Tom Evans, lobbyist for the Virginia Firearms Dealers Association, many of whose members oppose the ban.
"It's a political reality," said Maj. Charles Bennett Jr. of the Richmond police department when asked why the legislation should be limited to two kinds of guns. "I've been down at the General Assembly for eight years and I know the difficulties.
"To go down there and be morally correct but politically naive is to lose your case."
The gun-control lobby says the Street Sweeper and the Tec-9 are being picked on for the most shallow of reasons - they're relatively cheap and very ugly.
Gun-control advocates counter that even though they'd prefer a longer list, there's justification for singling out the two.
The Street Sweeper, they say, is essentially in a class by itself. The gun, which was developed in Rhodesia and South Africa, was designed for riot control. Bennett said it's useful for plastering a room or a crowd with shells, but almost worthless if accuracy is required.
The Street Sweeper's drumlike cylinder holds 12 shotgun shells, all of which can be fired in about three seconds, unleashing more than 100 projectiles in that amount of time. The firearm, which sells for $300 to $400 over the counter, is not equipped with a sighting mechanism and is so poorly made that Bennett said he would not risk firing one.
The gun lobby says the weapon is useful for home protection and may even be used for hunting. Gun-control activists counter that its firepower makes those claims ludicrous.
The Tec-9 is in a subset of a broad class of guns known as 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistols. The 9mms, named for the size of their bullet, have become a gun of choice in street crime because of their rapid firepower, compactness and easy availability.
The magazines of most 9mms carry a dozen or so cartridges, but the Tec-9 and several other guns come equipped with more awkward and more lethal 32-cartridge magazines. They also are relatively inexpensive - about $250 in stores and $1,000 or more on the streets.
Tec-9s turn up more frequently in crimes than other, similar guns, said Del. Jean Cunningham, D-Richmond, who introduced the assault weapons bill.
Both Richmond police and officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington say Tec-9s are perhaps the most popular guns among street criminals and drug gangs. In 1991, the ATF traced more than 800 Tec-9s to crime scenes nationwide; Richmond police alone recovered more than 100 last year. But complete data on the number and types of all guns recovered by those agencies is unavailable.
The gun lobby counters that there's no proof of the predominance of Tec-9s and little to distinguish them from similar guns that are not being banned. They also argue that many 9mms can be equipped with the larger, 32-round magazines.
"Virtually any of them could be equipped with magazines of a wide range of capacities," Evans said.
But Cunningham said she's persuaded by the plea of law enforcement officials for control of the Tec-9.
"I'm not concerned about `fair' right now. I'm concerned about the drug trade and lives," she said.
\ AN ASSAULT WEAPONS GLOSSARY
\ Automatic weapon (machine gun) - A weapon designed to fire continuously while the trigger is depressed.
\ Semiautomatic weapon - A weapon designed to fire one round of ammunition and instantly reload the next with each squeeze of the trigger. Semiautomatics often fire almost as fast as automatics.
\ Assault weapon - An automatic or semiautomatic pistol, rifle or shotgun designed to fire rapidly during combat.
\ Handgun - A gun designed to be carried and fired using one hand.
\ 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol - A kind of handgun that uses 9mm cartridges. Affordable, easily concealed and able to fire rapidly, it is a favorite of street criminals.
\ Tec-9 - One of several guns, including the Cobray M-11, that are a subset of the 9mms. They have larger magazines, are often threaded to accept silencers and are bulkier than the regular 9mms.
\ Street sweeper - A shotgun that carries 12 shells in a drum-like cylinder and can fire them all within three seconds. A butterfly-shaped key is used to wind a spring that rotates the cylinder as the trigger is pulled. The gun was developed for riot control in South Africa and Rhodesia.
\ Assault rifle - A semiautomatic version of an infantry rifle, such as an AK-47 or Uzi carbine.