TAKING A RED PEN TO THE CRIME BILL

You've heard the expression: a couple of bad apples spoil the barrel. Well, that's exactly the case with federal anti-crime legislation. Both the House and the Senate have passed strong bills, but in each legislative package there's something tacked on that simply overwhelms the rest of the measure -- and that's too bad. I'm referring to the Racial Justice Act (RJA) and the semiautomatic weapons ban on 19 guns.

The RJA has very little to do with racial justice, and a lot to do with blocking capital punishment. In fact, many states Attorneys General, prosecutors, and even cops on the streets are against this proposal because it undermines their jobs and would result in effectively abolishing the ultimate price to pay for heinous crime -- the death penalty. Establishing racial quotas in sentencing is to me abhorrent. We can have only one standard of citizenship, not one that applies differently to different racial groups.

Turning to the semiautomatic weapons ban, an "I told you so" is in order. Remember last year when the Brady Bill -- five-day wait to purchase a handgun -- became law, at that time I said it's just the beginning of more gun controls to come. Sure enough, now we're fighting an actual ban itself. I simply do not believe that those who think gun controls translate into crime controls have a very good grasp on the problem.

A House-Senate Conference Committee has been working over the past month to produce a reconciled anti-crime package. I hope the conferees take a red pen to the racial quotas provision and the semi-automatic weapons ban and strike them from the final bill. I sincerely want to vote for anti-crime legislation; however, if they remain, I'll be forced to vote "against" them and the overall bill once again.