The Nation - News from April 29, 1988

In a move to set standards on “plastic guns,” a House panel approved legislation to require that all guns be detectable by current X-ray machines and metal detectors. The House Judiciary Committee gave voice-vote approval to the measure after defeating, 23 to 12, an amendment by Rep. George W. Gekas (R-Pa.) that called for the death penalty for anyone using a plastic gun in the commission of a crime. The legislation approved by the panel will ban the manufacture, sale or possession of undetectable plastic firearms. Law enforcement agencies and gun control groups have been lobbying intensely for standards that would prevent terrorists from slipping the plastic guns past detectors. No plastic gun has been manufactured, but a Florida company has a patent on one that it plans to manufacture in about two years.