The letter calls for passage of the "Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003" (S. 1431 and H.R. 2038), a bill that would not only renew, but strengthen, the federal assault weapons ban. Excerpts from the letter were published today in a paid advertisement in Roll Call (follow this link for the full text of the letter and the ad), stating:

the gun industry has successfully evaded the current assault weapons ban enacted in 1994. They have done this by making slight, cosmetic design changes to their "post-ban" guns, a tactic the industry has dubbed "sporterization."

In the past 10 years, the gun industry has flooded the market with these weapons. Today, "post-ban" AR-15s, AK-47s, MAC-10s, and even UZIs are legal to manufacture, buy, and sell—and are being used in crime....From 1998 through 2001, one out of five law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty were killed with an assault weapon.

We know this legislation will work. It is modeled on California's successful assault weapons ban passed in 1999. The rest of the nation deserves a law as strong as California's.

The ad was paid for by the Violence Policy Center (VPC), Trauma Foundation, and Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles. A new study released yesterday by the VPC, United States of Assault Weapons: Gunmakers Evading the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, reveals that more than 40 gunmakers in 22 states are currently marketing "post-ban" assault weapons—including UZIs, AK-47s, AR-15s, MAC-10s, Galils, MP5s, Tommy Guns, Stens, and others. The study also estimates that more than one million "post-ban" assault weapons have been manufactured in the United States since the ban's passage in 1994 and warns that today "there are more assault weapon manufacturers and assault weapons available for sale than ever before."