For Immediate Release

One Month and Counting until Federal Assault Gun Ban Expires
President Bush refuses to lift a finger to save ban

August 13th, 2004

The September 13th deadline for the 1994 federal assault weapons ban looms as Congress takes its recess and the President campaigns for re-election.

For nearly a year now, on the 13th of each month, CeaseFire Maryland and others in the gun violence prevention movement have called attention to the ticking clock on the 1994 federal assault weapons ban and have urged its strengthening and renewal, not its demise.

Leah Barrett, CeaseFire Maryland’s Executive Director, said: “It is sad that we as a country have reached the point where time and hope have nearly run out on keeping and improving a ban on these weapons of war. Common sense is about to lose out to common fear – the President’s and Congress’ fear of the gun lobby.”

Over 1,400 police chiefs and sheriffs from 35 states across the country are on record supporting a strong and effective ban on assault weapons. The list is a work in progress and is constantly being updated by CeaseFire Maryland and other members of States United to Prevent Gun Violence (SUPGV), the national coalition of state-based organizations devoted to reducing gun violence. Fifty-nine police chiefs and sheriffs from Maryland are on the list, a clear majority of law enforcement in the state (see below).

Lisa Miller Delity, President of CeaseFire Maryland, said, “The men and women tasked with protecting the American public know better than anyone the dangers posed by these guns. Their ranks have been depleted thanks to assault weapons. Ten years ago my brother, FBI special agent Mike Miller, was one of the victims, killed by a man with a TEC-9 assault pistol in a DC police station.” She went on: “The fact is that at least one in five police officers killed in the line of duty between 1998 and 2001 was killed with an assault weapon, according to FBI data. These guns are cop-killers and have no place on our streets.” (‘Officer Down – Assault Weapons and the War on Law Enforcement’, Violence Policy Center (VPC), 2003).

A July study from the Violence Policy Center reveals that more than 40 gunmakers in 22 states are currently marketing assault weapons, including UZIs, AK-47s, AR-15s, MAC-10s, Galils, MP5s and others despite the 1994 ban. The truth is that more than a million assault weapons have been marketed since the ban’s passage in 1994 ("United States of Assault Weapons: Gunmakers Evading the Federal Assault Weapons Ban”, http//:www.vpc.org/studies/USofAW.htm).

This study shows is that if the 1994 ban is simply renewed, and not strengthened, every single one of the assault weapons made by these companies will remain on the market, legal for sale to the American public under federal law.

CeaseFire Maryland has consistently called for a strong and effective federal ban, not just straight renewal of an incomplete law. Two states have led the way in passing effective laws banning assault weapons– California and New Jersey. Barrett commented: “CeaseFire Maryland tried to do the same last year but our efforts were thwarted by a single Senator, John A. Giannetti, Jr., (D-Dist 21), who was the swing vote in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. In his judgment, the entire Maryland Senate didn’t deserve a chance to vote on this life-saving measure.” She continued, “That was a pity. Perhaps in 2005 our state lawmakers and Governor will feel more urgency to pass a law to protect Marylanders if, as expected, the weak federal law lapses. As Maryland citizens, we must make them feel that urgency.”