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Can someone post a link? Before sending my 2 cents to the FOP I searched the Star- Leger Online & couldn't find anything about this article.....
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[url]http://www.njo.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1053067104302100.xml?starledger?ntop [/url]
Friday, May 16, 2003
BY ROBERT COHEN
STAR-LEDGER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- As House Republican leaders maneuvered yesterday to end a federal ban on assault weapons, other lawmakers were pushing a proposal to help local police agencies buy bulletproof vests.
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) is one of the leaders of the effort to win more funding for the protective clothing. An opponent of the assault weapons ban, he also wrote the soon-to-expire law that has provided police around the country with $125 million since 1998 to buy bulletproof vests. Surrounded by several dozen policemen who came to Washington yesterday to memorialize their brethren killed in the line of duty, LoBiondo said, "I strongly believe that when police officers are issued a badge and a gun, they should also be issued a protective vest."
LoBiondo made his comments as House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) fended off questions about whether he would allow a vote on the politically volatile issue of whether to renew the assault weapons ban that will expire in 2004.
"That bill has not been discussed by the leadership yet, and I have not had a discussion with the president yet. I am not ready to make that decision," said Hastert.
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said yesterday that it was "ironic that we will provide funding to protect policemen while increasing the risk of their coming face-to-face with extremely powerful assault weapons."
LoBiondo, who voted in 1996 to repeal the assault weapons ban and has backed other National Rifle Association efforts, said the money for bulletproof vests is unrelated to the assault weapons issue.
"That situation (assault weapons) is still unfolding," said LoBiondo. "I haven't focused on it. I will deal with it when it comes up. This is not the issue we are here to deal with today."
Edward Brannigan, president of the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police, said yesterday that funding for the bulletproof vests is essential to save lives. But he added Congress should not sidestep the assault weapons issue.
"Assault weapons kill police officers," he said. "I hope they think it over and renew the ban."
A recent study by the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based group that supports an extension of the assault weapons ban, found that 41 of the 211 police officers killed between January 1, 1998, and Dec. 31, 2001, were victims of assault weapons.
Earlier this week, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) said "the votes in the House aren't there" to continue the assault weapons ban. His spokesman later said the House Republican majority has no intention of allowing for a vote.
The comments were criticized by a number of Democrats and gun control advocates, and questioned by Bush, who promised to back the ban's extension. The death of the assault weapons law has been a top priority of the NRA, which has been upset about the president's support for extending the law.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer this week refused to say whether Bush would lobby Capitol Hill for an extension of the ban. Bush yesterday paid tribute to fallen law enforcement officers and their "character and courage," but he made no mention of assault weapons.
The 1994 assault weapons law, approved during the Clinton administration, outlaws the manufacture, sale or possession of 19 specific semi-automatic military-style guns like the Uzi and the AK-47. It also prohibits large capacity ammunition clips.
New Jersey also has its own state law banning similar assault weapons.
Despite the ban, gun control groups say assault weapons have proliferated because manufacturers have produced automatic weapons not specifically covered by the law. This includes the Bushmaster rifle used in the Washington, D.C., area sniper shootings.
Some gun control advocates including Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) have proposed expanding the guns banned under the law while others, including Sen. Dainne Feinstein (D-Calif.), have said they would seek the extension of the law given the political realities.
But the goal of renewing the law may be out of reach.
John Feehrey, Hastert's spokesman, said the House speaker was not necessarily contradicting DeLay by saying the issue is still under discussion.
"What DeLay said is accurate," said Feehrey. "There probably are not enough votes in the House Judiciary Committee to move a bill to the floor, and there are probably not enough votes in the chamber to win passage of the assault weapons extension."