WA Lege: Assault weapon ban in bull’s eye

OLYMPIA — A proposal to ban certain semi-automatic firearms was praised by the mother of a shooting victim and a city police chief, but roundly panned by gun-rights activists.

The proposal, SB 6396, which would ban weapons commonly called “military style assault weapons” once covered by federal law, generated references to a Halloween slaying of a Seattle police officer and the 1994 shooting spree at Fairchild Air Force Base. It also prompted a debate between a state senator and a police chief over the definition of lethal.

The Puget Sound region saw six officers killed in the last two months of 2009, including Officer Tim Brenton, who was killed with a weapon that would be covered by the bill. Banning assault weapons with clips that fire more than 10 rounds is a way to protect police officers, Bellevue Police Chief Linda Pillo said.

“Which guns are lethal and which are not?” asked Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.

Guns that fire multiple rounds quickly are more lethal, Pillo said.About a fifth of all officers killed in the line of duty between 1998 and 2001 were killed by assault weapons, she said, and 10 officers in Los Angeles were wounded in a single bank robbery by the weapons.

“How many rounds does it take to kill a person or a deer?” asked Roach.

Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, sponsor of the bill and chairman of the Judiciary Committee that was hearing it, said the bill includes descriptions of features on firearms such as pistol grips on rifles and barrel shrouds that make a gun “more lethal than your average deer rifle.” That prompted laughter in the hearing room which,

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