Omnibus Bill Near By NEAL KNOX WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 4) -- Things are heating up. And I'm not just talking about this sweltering Fourth of July. It looks as if the Administration will have its gun proposals ready for introduction as part of an omnibus crime bill by the summer recess, about a month from now. The bill will include the hybrid Brady waiting period/background check bill, but how much more -- out of the two dozen gun bills pending -- remains a question. But there are clues: Two weeks ago House Crime Subcommittee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) held hearings on the "flaws in the regulation of gun dealers." Significantly, they didn't concern any specific piece of legislation, making it almost certain that major new requirements -- and fees -- on dealers will be included in the unintroduced crime bill. Bill Bridgewater, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Stocking Gun Dealers, provided written testimony which accused BATF of creating "the world's largest firearms black market" by licensing part-time dealers. In his continuing effort to eliminate competition, he called for FFL fees to be set at $350 to $500 per year. Schumer's lead witness was Edward Daily, serving 71 months in Federal prison for running a gun buying and smuggling operation, and obviously eager to say whatever the Congressmen wanted to hear. Daily assured them waiting periods would slow down traffickers, and that what criminals really wanted was big- magazine semi-autos so they could shoot "Not just people but a quantity of people. They want to shoot five people five times." However, Rep. James Sensenbrenner's (R-Wis.) questions weren't in the script; when he asked Daily how Virginia's new one gun per month law would have affected his business Daily said he would simply "use more people (as straw men) and I might try fake I.D.'s." A few minutes later Schumer tried to get Daily back on track: "What you're saying is that the one gun per month law that just passed in Virginia would have greatly put a crimp in your activities?" Daily didn't take the hint, stammering for a minute -- because that clearly wasn't what he had said -- and repeating: "I'd just get a lot more people." Another indicator of what will be in the bill was Schumer's simultaneous effort to eliminate the BATF appropriation prohibition against using their funds to create any form of national registration system -- which dated back to 1978, when BATF tried to impose gun registration through its regulations. Schumer got the prohibition removed in the Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee, but -- when pro-gunners realized what had been done -- it was restored in full committee. Schumer had threatened to try again on the House floor, but didn't. The 1986 McClure-Volkmer Act also prohibits BATF from creating any registration system, which Schumer and several gunophobes in the Senate have complained about, so that's almost certainly going to be in the crime/gun bill. The overwhelming 1991 House vote -- and potent House leadership opposition -- against a military-style rifle ban may keep so-called "assault weapons" out of the bill. But it's likely that we'll see some kind of ban on large-capacity magazines (which some bills have defined as anything over six rounds). How much more will be in the bill is anyone's guess. * * * On Independence Day, 1984, I wrote a relatively few friends that I had decided to register as an independent Congressional lobbyist, and asked for their financial assistance. That's when I wrote the first of these 324 reports to you -- every ten days for nine years -- and only one has directly asked for your help. In these nine years we've managed to fight off a series of attacks on the Second Amendment. We've lost some battles. But if we hadn't been fighting, and if we hadn't kept you informed so you could hammer on your lawmakers, we would have lost much more. As indicated by today's report, Bill Clinton, the Schumers and Metzenbaums are gathering for another major onslaught. Quite frankly, we don't have the treasury to buy all the postage stamps, printing, telephone calls and myriad other expenses that this battle will require. If you haven't contributed lately to our efforts, please do so. You'll be supporting these published reports, the bulletins that we've been placing on Tanya Metaksa's computer Bullet'N Board [(703) 971-4491] since Independence Day 1985, and our free Legislative Hotline [(301) 871-30'06], as well as my lobbying on your behalf on Capitol Hill. ---- (c) 1993 by Neal Knox and Associates. All Rights Reserved.