Assault-Gun Ban Faces New and Capable Nemesis
As written in the New York Times
Copyright 1995 The New York Times Company
December 10, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
Section 1; Page 30; Column 1; National Desk
At some quiet legislative moment before Christmas, a freshman Congressman who is considered the new point man for the National Rifle Association will have a chance to demonstrate whether he is as tough and determined as colleagues and critics estimate.
"Bob Barr is smart, relentless and very extreme," said Representative Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who last year championed the passage of the Federal assault-weapons ban that Mr. Barr, Republican of Georgia, has made a target for repeal in his role as chairman of the House's new Firearms Legislation Task Force.
"As a former prosecutor," said Mr. Barr, who respects Mr. Schumer as no less extreme in his antigun passion, "I believe the attention ought to be on the criminal, not on the law-abiding citizen who may become a criminal only because we passed a gun ban."
The 47-year-old Mr. Barr, former United States Attorney in north Georgia, is already demonstrating some skill at the Capitol's "byzantine" ways, which he says he came to appreciate in an earlier career as the Central Intelligence Agency's legislative analyst. In the forefront of Speaker Newt Gingrich's resolute band of freshmen, he has proved sharp on his feet in debate over heated issues like the Waco tragedy, and enough of a drafting strategist to limit additional Federal powers under the antiterrorism bill.
Even more, he is not afraid of the leadership of his own party when it comes to the Second Amendment's guarantee of a right to bear arms. Republicans who are more moderate have shied from the effort to repeal the assault-weapons ban, an effort that was rated too controversial for inclusion in the Contract With America. But Mr. Barr organized a bipartisan House drive two months ago to press Speaker Gingrich to put the repeal back on the voting agenda, after it had been discreetly laid aside last spring in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The result of Mr. Barr's rallying of colleagues was more than 100 co-sponsors and the leadership's decision to allow the issue to the floor before the year-end holidays. Politicians rate this a compromise that pays the potent gun lobby some homage yet keeps the issue of the assault-weapons ban, which is generally popular with voters, clear of the 1996 election year. National Republican candidates like the Senate majority leader, Bob Dole, might face more controversy than advantage in arguing then for the repeal sought by Mr. Barr.
"Here's the December surprise, a Christmas gift to the American people," Bob Walker, lobbyist for Hand Gun Control Inc., said after hearing of the issue's sudden revival this week. Mr. Walker considers House passage likely and estimates that even with the bill's Senate chances uncertain and President Clinton committed to veto any repeal, the vote will offer a primer on the changing politics of the gun issue and on Mr. Barr as leader of the resilient anti-gun-control bloc.
"I think Newt knows he's between a rock and a hard place," Mr. Schumer said of the Speaker, who created the gun task force last winter after heading off an effort by pro-repeal lawmakers to mix the issue into other legislation. "To repeal the ban is unpopular and shows the Republicans as out of the mainstream. On the other hand, Newt owes a lot to the N.R.A. and other far-right groups."
Mr. Barr himself received strong election-campaign support from the N.R.A. His home region, around Smyrna, Ga., includes, just outside the lines of his district, the distributor for the Glock gun manufacturers of Austria, which was hurt by Mr. Schumer's weapons ban. Beyond that, however, Mr. Walker and others credit Mr. Barr as a "true believer" and formidable newcomer to the debate. Mr. Schumer contends that Georgia is now "the state of choice" for wayward dealers who, he says, easily buy guns in bulk there and sell them illegally in other jurisdictions.
"I suspect there are a lot of jurisdictions where the Second Amendment is respected more than it is in Chuck Schumer's district," commented Mr. Barr. "There are people who purchase guns in other jurisdictions and ship them into his district, perhaps for use by some for illegal purposes, but others who simply want to defend themselves. And he doesn't give them that opportunity."
If enacted, the measure would re-legalize 19 types of semiautomatic military-style weapons as well as "banana clips" and other ammunition magazines that hold more than nine rounds, the sort used in the Long Island Rail Road commuter carnage two years ago. It would also explicitly guarantee a right to use a gun to defend one's home, an innovation critics fear would gut state and local gun-control laws.
"That's precisely what it's intended to do," Mr. Barr confirmed without apology. "It says that the Second Amendment means something and that a locality cannot just arbitrarily override it."
As a graduate of the University of Southern California and Georgetown Law School, Mr. Barr is an articulate debater on the issue, hardly the unsophisticated backwoods gun-lover Mr. Schumer might prefer as an adversary in the looming debate. "Barr is really calling the shots now on this issue," Mr. Schumer said. "It's interesting that a freshman from Georgia would have the ability to push Newt around on this, but he does."
Mr. Barr claims no such power, but quietly stresses that the effort to repeal the assault-weapons ban is only beginning with the coming debate. "There's going to be continuous pressure," he promised.
