JUSTICE DEPT. OFFICIALS STAND BY DEFENSE OF GUN OWNERSHIP

WASHINGTON -- Justice Department officials disputed charges that the department's position that the Constitution guarantees people the right to own guns undermines federal gun laws.

The department will defend all federal gun laws, including those that prohibit some individuals from owning firearms because they have committed crimes, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

They rejected claims by gun control groups that the new policy invites challenges to existing gun laws and will make it difficult to defend the laws in court.

"This does not weaken the department's ability to defend gun control laws," said one official. Rather, it "demonstrates a marked difference in the way this administration is going to protect individual rights."

The department's policy on gun rights was articulated in a letter Attorney General John Ashcroft sent to the National Rifle Association in May. Ashcroft said the original intent of the Second Amendment "unequivocally protects the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms."

The statement reversed the position held by the Clinton administration, which argued that the Constitution provided a right for groups, not individuals, to own firearms.

NRA executive director James Baker said the group may at some point challenge gun laws in court on grounds that they violate the Second Amendment but there was no immediate plan to do so.

'FRIGGATRISKAIDEKAPHOBES' BEWAREHeadline: 'FRIGGATRISKAIDEKAPHOBES' BEWARE

Latitia Sloan will hold her breath if she drives by a cemetery today. She holds her breath any time she drives by a cemetery.

"You don't want to inhale any bad spirits," she says.

The superstitious Sloan isn't particularly concerned that today is Friday the 13th because it isn't one of the superstitions she subscribes to. But plenty of people do. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal estimates that each 13th of the month costs the U.S. $1 billion in train and plane cancellations and absenteeism.

Friggatriskaidekaphobe is the word for those who are afraid of Friday the 13th. Friday is the day of the Nordic goddess Frigga, and triskaidekaphobe is the term for people who are afraid of the number 13.

The number 13 seems to have been little loved through the ages. Falling just after the perfection of 12, represented by the number of Apostles, signs of the Zodiac and months in a year, 13 is "the wrench in the works," says Kevin Christopher, a spokesman for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

Judas was the 13th person at the Last Supper, but prejudices against the number 13 pre-date Christianity.

Now the fear of 13 is found throughout Western culture, from hotels with no 13th floors to airplanes and sports arenas with no 13th seat.

Friday supposedly is the day Eve offered Adam the apple. Christ was crucified on a Friday, so the day became associated with misfortune in European folk belief. Sailors don't like to begin a voyage on a Friday. The U.S. Navy still will not launch a ship on Friday the 13th.

But Christopher points out that many good things have happened on Fridays, and there are plenty of good 13s -- the colonies and Stevie Wonder's birthday among them.

Superstition Bash

CSICOP will hold the sixth annual Friday the 13th Superstition Bash today in Amherst, N.Y., where the committee is based. They will open umbrellas indoors, walk under ladders and break a mirror just for fun.

But the committee's work is serious, Christopher says. In their magazine the Skeptical Inquirer, the 80 fellows who are members of the committee publish articles that apply science to claims of UFO or paranormal experiences and alternative medicine cures. Christopher says the committee has never found a claim to be true.

People who perform rituals for luck, as some athletes do, or who believe objects have lucky powers are not stupid or ignorant, Christopher says. "People are uncomfortable with uncertainty. It disturbs them and causes anxiety."

But from a scientific standpoint, Christopher says, "There is no such thing as luck."

Sloan, a dental assistant in Cape Girardeau, abides by all the usual superstitions about ladders and mirrors but she also has some unusual ones. She doesn't put her purse on the floor because of the superstition that doing so means you'll never have any money.

Her grandmother taught that sweeping your feet with a broom is bad luck unless you immediately spit on the broom. Sloan spits on brooms just to be sure.

"If it's any possibility that it means anything, then I do it," she says.