ARMOR PIERCING AMMUNITION AND THE CRIMINAL MISUSE AND AVAILABILITY OF MACHINEGUNS AND SILENCERS THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1984 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:25 a.m., in room 2237, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. William J. Hughes (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Hughes, Smith, and Shaw. Staff present: Hayden W. Gregory, counsel; Eric E. Sterling, assistant counsel; Theresa A. Bourgeois, staff assistant; Charlene Vanlier, associate counsel; and Phyllis N. Henderson, clerical staff. Mr. HUGHES. The Subcommittee on Crime will come to order. The Chair has received a request to cover this hearing in whole or in part by television broadcast, radio broadcast, still photography, or by other similar methods. In accordance with committee rule 5(a), permission will be granted unless there is objection. Is there objection? Hearing none, permission is granted. This morning the Subcommittee on Crime is continuing its hearings on the problems of crime in connection with firearms. Last week, the subcommittee heard testimony that was nearly unanimous in expressing concern for a serious problem that our Nation's law enforcement officers face. That is the threat of handgun ammunition that can penetrate the protective soft-body armor now worn by almost half of the Nation's police officers. Last week, the Department of Justice was scheduled to testify before this subcommittee but it asked for a last minute postponement at the instruction of OMB, which had failed to take a position on a proposal that the Justice Department sent to the White House in January. We are looking forward to hearing what the Department of Justice can now tell us about its research and the status of its proposal to ban armor-piercing ammunition. Today we also want to begin to examine another critical area: the burgeoning traffic in machineguns and silencers-the tools of organized crime assassins and drug traffickers. The number of machineguns being sold, according to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is now 60 percent more than what it was just 5 years ago. (107) There is mounting evidence that the system to control the traffic in machineguns is being circumvented. In 1934, Congress established a tax on each transfer of a machinegun of some $200. After 50 years of inflation, that $200 tax, intended to restrict availability of machineguns, is just small potatoes. In today's dollars, a comparable tax would be about $1,300. Similarly, the Congress determined to limit the number of persons who would be allowed to deal in machineguns by setting a special occupational tax at $200. This is no longer a meaningful limitation. In just the last 5 years, the number of persons licensed to deal in machineguns has more than tripled. Over the past 5 years, an average of more than 55,000 machineguns has been manufactured or imported into the United States each year. We are just beginning to look into this problem. We want to learn the extent to which machineguns and silencers are being used in crime, and are being stockpiled by organized crime groups. We would like to obtain estimates of the number of such weapons smuggled into the United States. How many machineguns are being used to commit robbery, murder, and extortion to provide the muscle for racketeers, and for the protection of drug traffickers? We have been advised that BATF is seeing many conversions of semiautomatic weapons into machineguns. We would like to know how many semiautomatic weapons are being sold each year. This morning, the BATF will explain how a semiautomatic weapon, whether a pistol, a rifle, or a shotgun, can easily be converted into an automatic weapon like a machinegun. They will show the silencers, for which there is no legitimate use, that I am aware of, and which are used mainly for assassination, are sold in "do-it-yourself" kits to frustrate the law requiring their registration and taxation. In 1983, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was able to buy some 583 illegal machineguns in undercover law enforcement operations. The subcommittee needs to know how large a tip of the iceberg that number represents so that we can see the extent of the crime problem that we will have to navigate in the future. To make policy, to budget appropriately and to protect the public, we need accurate information about the crime problem that faces us. We need to learn the details about machineguns in our Nation's crime problem and evaluate the potential danger that they present. I look forward to hearing the witnesses today, and the Chair at this time recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Shaw. Mr. SHAW. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to join you in welcoming today's witnesses. I think we have a very interesting hearing and one that is very necessary. I particularly want to join my friend and colleague Larry Smith in welcoming Chief Tighe. Chief Tighe's city of Pembroke Pines, Broward County, FL, lies within Mr. Smith's district. However, before redistricting, it was part of my district. We have some real special problems in south Florida, many of which are created by the firearms that you just mentioned: silencers, machineguns, and things of this nature. This makes, I believe, the testimony that we are going to hear today from these wit nesses, particularly important to Florida, and I look forward to this hearing. Thank you. Mr. HUGHES. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Smith. Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me thank you, as chairman, for scheduling this hearing today and to commend you on bringing up the continuing subject of the armor-piercing bullets-and, I, like you, waited with bated breath as to what we are going to be told today by the members of the Justice Department-but also, for scheduling a further hearing on the trafficking in machine guns and the manufacture of machine guns and silencers. Again, south Florida has within its purview the ability to tell everybody that for all intent and purposes it is one of the major problem areas in the United States. We have more Federal licensees making more weapons in Florida. The largest single seizure of silencers made about 6 or 8 months ago by BATF and other law enforcement agencies was made in south Florida. Most of those were for export, it appears. So we do have a continuing problem in this area. Interestingly enough, this area, being very heavily travelled by dealers in drugs, is also an area where we have seen those drug dealers relying very heavily on weapons such as silencers and on machineguns. Also, we have seen the conversion of the semiautomatics, which are licensed for manufacture into full automatics; of course, that conversion is illegal. So, I am very happy to have had you do this today. I think the proliferation is something that really needs to be looked into. It is far and away beyond anything that we should allow to continue. And I do want to commend to you that my good friend Chief Tighe of the Pembroke Pines Police Department was also the President of the Broward County Police Chiefs Association, is here today, and will be making some statements on these items as they are peculiarly within the province of the police enforcement agencies in the county and in the region. I am sure we will be very interested in what he has to say and I appreciate his being here. Again, thank you for scheduling this hearing. Mr. HUGHES. I thank the gentleman. I would like at this time to introduce the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Mr. Stephen E. Higgins, who is accompanied by Mr. Marvin Dessler, chief counsel, and Mr. Edward M. Owen, Chief of the Firearms Technology Branch. Mr. Higgins was appointed to the Director's position in March 1983. Prior to this he served as Acting Director of BATF from 1982 until 1983, Deputy Director from 1979 until 1982, and Assistant Director for Regulatory Enforcement from 1975 until 1979. Mr. Higgins joined BATF in 1961 as an Inspector in Omaha, NE and rapidly assumed positions of increasing responsibility until his appointment in 1975 as an Assistant Director, the youngest Assistant Director, I might say, in the Bureau's history. Gentlemen, we welcome you to the Subcommittee on Crime. Mr. Higgins, we have your statement, which, without objection, will be made a part of the record in full, and you may proceed as you see fit. I see that we have a vote in progress and I think it might be prudent before we even begin your testimony to catch our vote and come right back and then we will begin. We will be back in 10 minutes. The subcommittee stands in recess for 10 minutes. [Recess.] Mr. HUGHES. The subcommittee will come to order. I might say that I am sorry that it took so long. For those that might be interested, the debt ceiling bill passed, so the Republic is again saved; apparently they will not tear the Monument down, and the checks for social security will go out. To all, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Higgins, I am sorry that we had to interrupt. TESTIMONY OF STEPHEN E. HIGGINS, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, ACCOMPANIED BY WILLIAM T. DRAKE, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, COMPLIANCE OPERATIONS; MARVIN DESSLER, CHIEF COUNSEL; DONALD ZIMMERMAN, DEPUTY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, LAW ENFORCEMENT; AND EDWARD OWEN, CHIEF, FIREARMS TECHNOLOGY BRANCH Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. It is a pleasure to appear before you to discuss ATF's role in regulating the commerce in automatic weapons and silencers as provided by the National Firearms Act. Accompanying me this morning are Mr. William T. Drake, Associate Director for Compliance Operations; Mr. Marvin Dessler, the chief counsel of the Bureau; Mr. Donald Zimmerman, the Deputy Associate Director for Law Enforcement; and Mr. Edward Owen, who is Chief of our Firearms Technology Branch. The National Firearms Act was enacted in 1934 in response to mounting public outrage over the open warfare among the notorious organized criminal gangs of the Prohibition era. The Bureau of ATF and its predecessor agencies have enforced the act since its inception. The act addresses the weapons which were the tools of their vicious trade: machineguns, sawed-off shotguns, silencers, and similar types of weapons. The act has stood the test of time and is still a valuable asset to ATF special agents in their battle with the violent criminals of today. In 1934, the primary abusers of NFA weapons were bootleggers and rumrunners capitalizing on the illicit alcohol market created by Prohibition. Murder, mindless violence, and intimidation were only a few of the hallmarks of their long reign of terror. Fifty years later, in 1984, we find an equally, or even more vicious intimidating and ruthless criminal embracing the machinegun as the weapon of preference. I am speaking of the drug smugglers and dealers infesting our Southern borders and major cities. These are criminals who deal in a poison which poses a far greater threat to our society than bootleg liquor may ever have approached. Ironically, the sense of security and protection from rivals, which these criminals seem to derive from NFA weapons, is often their Achilles heel. Just as Al Capone fell victim to tax violations rather than to bootlegging charges, today's drug trafficker often falls victim to weapons charges when narcotics violations prove more difficult or impossible to establish. Mr. Chairman, I know you are personally aware of the many successes of ATF special agents in south Florida. In fact, a congressional committee recently published the results of a survey of local police departments in the south Florida venue which asked for an evaluation of Federal law enforcement agencies operating in the area. We were proud to learn that ATF was rated number one in terms of cooperation with State and local officers in their battle against narcotic smugglers. The NFA Act is one of the weapons which enables our agents to achieve such well deserved recognition. It is important to stress that up to this point I have been talking about unregistered, contraband NFA weapons. I would now like to turn to the manner in which we regulate legally registered NFA weapons. These weapons are held by collectors and others; only rarely do they figure in violent crime. In this connection, the question of why an individual would want to possess a machinegun or, more often, a silencer, is often raised. We would suggest that ATF's interest is not in determining why a law-abiding individual wishes to possess a certain firearm or device, but rather in ensuring that such objects are not criminally misused. The regulatory scheme for dealing in or legally possessing NFA weapons and silencers is straightforward and provides safeguards which are adequate, in normal circumstances, to ensure that the firearms remain in the hands of law-abiding individuals. Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, in order to deal in NFA weapons and silencers, an individual must be licensed and additionally must pay a Special Tax. The processing of a license application includes an NCIC check on the applicant to ensure that he has no disabling criminal history. This same type of control extends to an individual who desires to possess an NFA weapon, device or silencer. The prospective transferor must submit an application to us to transfer and register the firearm or device to a transferee. He must include with the application the fingerprints and a current photo of the transferee, a certification by the local chief law enforcement officer that possession of the weapon would not place the transferee in violation of local law and that he has no information that the individual would use the weapon in violation of local law. A written statement is also required from the transferee that possession of the weapon or device is consistent with public safety and is reasonably necessary. While there are certain exceptions to one or more of the provisions I have just mentioned, for example, sales to police departments, those exceptions do not constitute a significant segment of the total legitimate commerce in NFA weapons. |