WASHINGTON – Gaithersburg Police Chief Mary Ann Viverette said her department is ready for the worst if Congress does not renew the federal assault weapons ban before it expires Monday.
Gaithersburg police have “beefed up” their weaponry since the sniper incident of 2002, and are ready to respond to any threat, she said Wednesday.
But Viverette hopes it does not come to that. She joined other police, elected officials and gun-control advocates on Capitol Hill to urge renewal of the ban, saying even a short lapse would do irreparable damage to her department’s efforts and might begin a sort of urban arms race.
“We don’t want to have to keep upping our firepower to keep up,” she said. “If there’s a lapse, the damage will be done.”
Wednesday’s news conference urged the reauthorization of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which was signed by President Clinton in 1994. The bill, which included what is popularly known as the “assault weapons ban,” outlawed several types of semi-automatic weapons including the Uzi, AK-47, and TEC-9.
Guns with certain features, such as a folding stock or a pistol grip, were also banned, as were ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Critics of the ban charge that by focusing on appearance, lawmakers made it easy for manufacturers to get around the law by altering the look of their weapons.
“The fact is that these guns are available already and they’re not a problem,” said Erich Pratt, a spokesman for Virginia-based Gun Owners of America. “All the ban did was remove certain cosmetic features . . . the guts of the firearms were still the same.”
Larry Moreland, president of the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association, also said that some readily available hunting rifles have the same mechanics as the banned weapons — they just look different.
“All of the sudden . . . you put a big black stock on it and it’s this real bad assault rifle,” he said. “Why the hoopla just because it has certain attachments to it?”
Gun-control groups concede that the cosmetic loophole has let some manufacturers continue manufacturing versions of otherwise banned semi-automatic weapons. The Consumer Federation of America said that the gun used by Washington-area snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad in 2002 shooting spree was the Bushmaster XM15, a version of the Colt AR-15, a banned weapon.
But Pratt said the law, while flawed, has had the effect of denying “good self-defense weapons” to law-abiding citizens. In a riot or other civil disturbance where police assistance is not available, “You want a firearm that can hold a lot of ammunition” to defend your home or business, he said.
Even if there is a lapse in the ban, however, Maryland State Police said it will still not be easy for citizens to get any of the covered weapons.
“What we’re trying to control is the flow of guns into the hands of criminals, regardless of the type of weapon,” said Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.
Maryland state law bans the sale of certain types of semi-automatic pistols under its assault pistols law. The state also regulates the sale of 45 additional assault-type weapons by requiring a seven-day waiting period and background check.
Included on the state list are so-called “after ban” weapons such as the Bushmaster rifle. But Viverette still wants to see the federal-level prohibition on the weapons continue.
She said that her department has seized about 300 illegal assault-style weapons over the past 10 years, and she is not generally inclined to give them back.
“We’ll make them sue us to get them back if they have to,” she said.
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