permits the Patrick Purdys of this world to run free and gainnaccess to any sort of weapon. But does the solution tonpreventing such acts as his lie in oudawing a specific type ofnfirearm and casting ridicule or suspicion upon those whonwish to own them? Is the mounting incidence of violence innour society mainly attributable to the presence of semiautomaticnweapons, or do other factors encourage the predispositionnof certain people to violent crime? Sociologists havendebated these issues for decades, without resolution.nCertain facts are quantifiable and demonstrable, however,nand once demonstrated they bring the supposedlyncriminal and sinister qualities of semiautomatic firearms intonclearer perspective. Gun-banners seem incapable (or unwilling)nto make any clear distinctions between the legalnsemiautos like Uzis and AK-47’s on the one hand, andngenuine “assault rifles” on the other. They further cloud thenissue by lumping all semiautomatic weapons into then”purely weapons of war” category. The March 15, 1989,nUS Commerce Department ban on the importation ofn”AK-47 type weapons” is a case in point. What precisely isnthe government’s interpretation of the phrase “AK-47 typenweapons”? Does it refer to all gas-operated semiautomaticnrifles {a la the American M-1, Belgian FN, and ChinesenSKS, among a host of others)? What about those semiautosnoperating on the blowback principle, like the importednIsraeli Uzi carbine? Does the ban cover only those semiautomaticnrifles utilizing intermediate-power rifle cartridgesnlike the AK-47? What about (again) the popular Uzi, whichnchambers nine millimeter pistol ammunition?nAlthough police departments in certain areas where therenis heavy drug traffic have testified to the rising criminal usenYES, MR. SCHLESINGER,nTHE COLD WAR’S OVERnThe cold war between the towns ofnFraser, Colorado, and International Falls,nMinnesota, has finally come to an end.nHere the war was waged not betweenncompeting political and economic systems,nbut between competing town sobriquets:nboth towns claimed exclusivenrights to the title “Icebox of the Nation.”nIt seems that both towns adopted the titlenin the 1950’s, and that the conflictingnclaims simply went unnoticed untilnabout two years ago, when each townnmade a mad msh to the US Patent andnTrademark Office for a federal copyrightnto the title.nNot surprisingly, both towns arguednthat statistics proved their frigid claims.nFraser, situated about 70 miles west ofnDenver, appears to have the coldernyear-round average temperature, duenprincipally to its 8,500-foot elevation. AsnFraser Town Manager Clay Brown said.nLIBERAL ARTSn”They have quite nice summers in InternationalnFalls, but we get below freezingnhere in summer.” The mayor ofnInternational Falls wasn’t impressed.n”No one cares about the summer,” henshot back, “we’re talking about cold,nfrigid weather.” He then cited his town’snaverage daily winter temperature, whichnis 5.2 degrees as compared with Fraser’sn13.4. Coldness, however, figured tonhave little to do with the matter, sincenthe US Patent Office said it was interestednmainly in which town first usednthe title.nThe town that had the most to lose innthis tiff over titles was InternationalnFalls, which had long marketed itselfnnationally as a cold weather test site.nGeneral Motors, Ford, Subaru, Sears,nand many other companies have longntested their products in InternationalnFalls (which is located on the Canadiannborder), and the state of Minnesota isnconsidering a plan to establish a ColdnWeather Research Center in the townnof semiautomatics, just how wide a threat to society does thenillicit possession and use of such weapons pose? Universitynof Texas criminologist Sheldon Ekland-Olson recently estimatednthat “assault rifle” type firearms figured in less than 1npercent of all homicides committed in the United States,nwhile the cheap “Saturday Night Special” handguns favorednby many petty criminals were used in between 30 and 40npercent of such killings.nLeaving aside the actual frequency of their criminalnusage, such vaunted and allegedly sinister weapons as thensemiautomatic AK-47 and Uzi are in some respects nonmore lethally effective than such conventional and “lowtech”nweapons as the shotgun. The AK will assuredly emptynits thirty-round magazine of cartridges within 20 seconds ifnthe shooter has a limber trigger finger and scant regard fornthe precise placement of his shots. By contrast, a RemingtonnModel 1100 semiautomatic shotgun fitted with a five-roundnmagazine for twelve-gauge cartridges can be fired emptynwithin five seconds or less. A shotgunner using a plasticncartridge-holding tube to speed reloading can easily keepnpace with an AK gunner in laying down a curtain of fire.nEven an elderly double-barreled shotgun charged withnbuckshot loads can dispense 18 projectiles in under twonseconds and be ready to fire again within five seconds.nCompared to such weapons the AK’s only advantages are itsnsuperior range and accuracy if used in firing slow, aimednshots. A recent comparison test has even disclosed that innterms of accuracy and striking power the venerable Modeln1894 Winchester lever-action deer rifle with its .30-30ncartridge is superior to the AK-47. (The Model 1894nWinchester was the gun used by actor Chuck Connors innThe Rifleman.)nnnto market the state’s expertise in thisnfield. As the mayor of International Fallsnsaid, “We want to say ‘Tested in thenIcebox of the Nation’ and have it be likena Good Housekeeping seal of approval.”nA truce between the towns wasnreached in August, bringing the coldnwar to an amiable end. As MartinnMoylan reported from St. Paul, Frasernagreed to use the title only in Coloradonand to drop its efforts to secure ancopyright if International Falls wouldnreimburse the town for the $2,000 itnexpended in legal fees. Realizing thendevastating effect that the loss of thentitle could have on International Falls,nFraser’s Clay Brown honorably concedednthat “cold-weather testing is morenimportant to their economy than it is tonours. We feel we have plenty of othernassets.” “This is a very warm ending tona cold war,” said the mayor of InternationalnFalls. (TP)nNOVEMBER 1989/23n