Posted on: Monday, July 19, 2004

EDITORIAL
Assault weapon ban should be permanent

When you think about it, an assault weapon — a gun that can spew out high volumes of bullets in a very short time — is nothing more than a weapon of mass destruction.

So one would think that in an era where we scour the world for such weapons, we would be the first to stamp out this version at home.

But that's not the case.

A 10-year federal ban on assault weapons is about to expire in less than 60 days.

Thus far, Congress seems remarkably uninterested in extending the ban, and the Bush administration has been more than passive on the issue.

President Bush says he supports renewing the ban, but he is also a proud recipient of the National Rifle Association's endorsement. The NRA is against extending the ban, arguing it is ineffective.

The answer to that is not to throw up our hands and give up, but to modify the ban so that it applies to all semiautomatic weapons, not just the 19 listed in the original ban.

Before the ban expires, Congress and the administration should do the right thing: Make the ban permanent, have it apply to all assault weapons and close loopholes that allow importation of high-capacity bullet clips and other "personal" WMDs.