Assault Weapons Ban

Across the United States, gun violence and deadly mass shootings spiked dramatically between 1960 and the early 1990s, reaching a new peak of nearly 23,000 fatalities in 1989. The AK-47 military assault rifle was developed by Soviet forces during the Cold War, and in 1959 Colt purchased an assault rifle model and was contracted by the U.S. military to develop weapons for the Vietnam War. Following this contract, they began marketing the five round Colt AR-15 Sporter to civilians. In 1977, the Colt patent ran out and sale price of the weapon dropped below $1,000, vastly expanding the assault rifle market across the country.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), the first piece of major federal gun legislation since the 1930s, significantly expanded federal weapons regulations in response to the growing public threat of gun violence. The GCA established licensing and interstate commerce regulations, prohibited certain sales and mail-order purchases, and restricted importation of military-style weapons. In response to these tightened restrictions, the National Rifle Association (NRA), through its Institute for Legislative Action, initiated federal lobbying efforts and escalated campaigns to enact restrictive state-by-state preemption laws, which forbid local governments from enacting gun laws stricter than state regulations. Following the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA), which amended the GCA to increase federal gun-ownership restrictions, the NRA successfully lobbied against gun restriction. Three years later the Assault Weapon Control Act of 1989 failed to pass further regulations on assault weapon purchases. In 1994, the Clinton administration succeeded in passing the federal assault weapons ban (Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994), which prohibited the manufacture, transfer, and possession of assault style semi-automatic firearms and magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition.

Seattle Public Safety Committee meeting

On February 17, 1989, the Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee held a meeting to address requests for reaction by the Washington State Legislature on an assault-weapons ban and repealing of preemptive statues restricting local jurisdictions from regulating registration, sale, or purchase of firearms. At this meeting the council reviewed the proposed legislation (Resolution 27934), held a police demonstration of confiscated assault weapons, and heard testimony from councilmembers and Seattle residents in support of ending preemption. The council voiced unanimous support for regulations providing greater local agency to enact firearm regulations and discussed potential additional restrictions on assault-type weapons including cooling-off periods, magazine capacity limits, and background checks for permitting.  

Testimony

Frank Treadwell - Seattle Police Department (listen to audio)

What I looked at, in an effort to come up with a statute as it is, three different pieces of legislation. One was a Los Angeles city ordinance that prohibits certain specified assault weapons. Another piece of legislation was a proposed bill in the California legislature which regulates, strictly regulates, assault weapons.

The third piece of legislation was a proposal by Senator Phil Talmadge that’s before the Washington state legislature dealing with semiautomatic weapons. Because I preferred the definitional section in the Los Angeles ordinance, that's what I've used in this proposed legislation. And the reason I preferred that ordinance is that it provided a specific list of makes and models of firearms that are intended to be prohibited by this legislation. And the reason I think there's some value in having that specific list is that it makes it clear that we're focused on the weapons, the examples of which are on this table, as opposed to weapons that would be commonly used by sportsmen for hunting or for target practice for that matter.

If I could just briefly go through the legislation, there's six sections, and I think I can summarize them expeditiously. The first section is a is an intent section that I think reflects the nature of the concerns here in this state. We haven't had a massacre like they had in the state of California, but we are concerned. We have seen an influx of these types of weapons being recovered by police in the arrest of criminals.

[person in background] Oh, that's the worst one.

And the second section is the descriptive section, dealing with the definition of [speakers talking inaudibly in background] - dealing with the definition of assault weapons. And it has, as I indicated, a specific list of firearms, some of which we have examples of here on this table. And we’ll show those in a minute. It also has a list of exclusions, and among the types of weapons that will be excluded from the definition of assault weapon are antique weapons and any assault weapon that's been rendered inoperable.

The third section amends the state law provision dealing with machine guns. Presently, under state law, the possession of a machine gun, a fully automatic weapon, is a felony. And this adds to that section "assault weapon" as defined in this proposal. The next section is basically a technical change, just for numbering's sake. Section number five on page four is an enhanced penalty section. And under this section, either the discharge or menacing or threatening another person with either a machine gun or an assault weapon would be a Class A felony. The final section, the sixth section, is the section that repeals the state preemption of local ordinances. Right now, there's a strong preemptive section in state law that prohibits any, any local jurisdictions from enacting laws that are inconsistent or more restrictive than the state law on firearms.

Discussion during council meeting (listen to audio)
Dolores Sibonga: I have a couple questions. Are some of these weapons available by mail?

Don Church: Only through a federally licensed firearms dealer. That's the only person that can purchase a weapon through mail in the United States, is a federally licensed dealer.

Dolores Sibonga: Okay. And what does a police department do with the weapons that are confiscated?

Unknown: Good question.

[laughter]

Frank Treadwell: Maybe I can help with that. There is a state law right now that would require the police department to sell 90% of the weapons that we would confiscate and that would remain unclaimed. We could keep 10% of those, of the total weapons that would fall in that category, for department use. Based on the state preemption, the strong state preemption language dealing with firearms, there's serious concern about whether or not we could enact a local ordinance that's inconsistent with that. We have, in fact, enacted a local ordinance that’s inconsistent with that, that provides here that the weapons will be used by the department or destroyed. So that's the - and right now the practice in the department is to maintain these weapons. We're just keeping them in storage.

Dolores Sibonga: Okay, all right.

Jane Noland: Yeah. This is a few months ago, and we refused to go along with that.

Dolores Sibonga: Okay.

Jane Noland: We also had language drafted by our lobbyist who introduced to our legislature to get this changed. Because the police don’t want to see the same weapons that they’ve confiscated coming back again. It very, it raises the issue of local control and why, if we don’t want to sell those guns back to the community, the state legislature is ordering us to do that in order to fund the state measures.

Virginia Galle: I feel very strongly that preemption has to be lifted in order for us to be able to control the weapons within our own city. I have seen photographs of weapons that have been taken from kids in school that include Uzis and machine guns, and the, you know, modification of that pistol, among other things, and I am just appalled that it isn't just a matter of kids being able to, well, they have access to all these weapons, and so I think that's an especially good reason for us to be able to control them.

Jane Noland: And you raised a good question when you said, can you buy them by mail order. Would you describe briefly, Terry, what has to be done in order to buy one of these guns?

Terry Anderson: Well, if you had a Washington State driver's license, you could just walk in and buy one.

Virginia Galle: That’s it?

Jane Noland: Is there any waiting period?

Terry Anderson: No, it's the same as any rifle or shotgun. All these assault-type weapons come under the same classifications as anybody that went in just to buy a regular shotgun to go bird hunting. 

Steve Foley - Seattle resident (listen to audio)
My name is Steve Foley. I live at 13337 Bagley Avenue North on the [inaudible] of Seattle. Charles Whitman killed 12 people from the top of an observation tower at Texas University [sic]. The weapon he used was a hunting rifle. Lee Harvey Oswald shot at a moving motorcade and fired three rounds in a matter of seconds, and he killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally. Again, the weapon used was a single shot hunting rifle. Ironically, the State of Washington Centennial Commission, co-chaired by First Lady Jean Gardner and Secretary of State Ralph Monroe, are issuing finely crafted, gold plated, beautifully and very limited edition fully operational model 94 AE Winchester 3030 rifles, hunting rifles, and I can't wait for one to be used in a drive-by shooting.

But more recently, a new weapon known as the assault rifle has come under the scrutiny of the public eye. I don't believe it's the type of weapon that’s responsible, but I think it is the human being whose hands carry these weapons that are responsible. The city, state, and federal governments are challenged with a difficult task. It is their responsibility to ensure the safety of the public while observing and upholding the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.

In this case, the right to bear arms. Every single law enforcement officer agrees that prohibiting the sale and possession of semiautomatic assault rifles to the public will not keep semi- or fully automatic weapons out of the hands of drug runners, gang members, or black marketeers. After all, we don’t sell crack at 7-11s, but it’s still widely available on the street.

But there must be a solution. Any step that we can take as a community to protect the lives of good, law-abiding citizens and our defenseless children should be implemented. And these protective measures should justly serve the local governments, and wouldn't support the public as a whole, including the National Rifle Association and the Americans who represent it. Perhaps, I believe if I heard you correctly, a 30-day cool off period is no longer allowed for assault-class rifles.

Perhaps a 30-day cool-off period is what is needed for the purchase of an assault-class weapon, before you remove it from the store and take it home. Perhaps during that period, local law enforcement officers can conduct a background check for mental stability, or a history of violent crime of the purchaser and the members of his household if they may have access to that weapon as well.

Perhaps an acceptable licensing fee will help cover the cost of these services to be implemented. Perhaps a requirement to report to local officials if the weapon has been resold to another private citizen, so that the licensing or title of that weapon can be transferred, much like a car. Then the location of the new owner of that weapon is known to be a responsible hand.

And perhaps what we ought to do first is limit the magazine size to ten rounds for assault-type weapons, because magazines for these assault-type weapons, as these officers have previously mentioned, for most popular assault rifles are available in Seattle right now with 90, that’s nine zero, round capacities in their magazines. So perhaps, just perhaps, these steps and others like these may in fact one day prevent the death of a citizen in our community and that, after all, is our immediate concern. Thank you.

The entire meeting can be heard in Digital Collections. (Event 6372, Seattle City Council Audio Recordings, Record Series 4601-03)

SMA Resources

• Assault Weapons, 1989. Box 23, Folder 4, Norm Rice Subject Files (Record Series 4674-02)  
• Mayor's Press Conference: Common Sense Gun Laws. Item 4255, Seattle Channel Moving Images (Record Series 3902-01): https://archives.seattle.gov/digital-collections/index.php/Detail/objects/202211  
• Public Safety: Gun Control / Assault Weapons. Box 29, Folders 1-6, Jane Noland Subject Files (Record Series 4663-02)
• Gun Control. Box 10, Folders 21-32 and Box 11, Folders 1-19, George Benson Subject Files (Record Series 4614-02)