Putting a legal lid on handguns, martial-arts weapons. `Ninja' movies, mail-order loophole help martial-arts weapons to spread

Michael James, publisher of three popular martial-arts magazines, sees the same trend, but doesn't think it's a problem. ``I have yet to hear of anyone holding up a liquor store with a nunchuck,'' he says. ``The real problem is that all this fighting over the bill is damaging the image of the martial arts. Ninjitsu is a martial-art form only -- a demonstration sport. . . . Show me some statistics so I can be more compassionate.''

Weapons have been confiscated in several instances. Two days ago, 300 blowguns were seized in Orange, Calif. In September, a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was arrested for carrying over 100 illegal martial-arts weapons, including 84 throwing stars.

But most evidence on weapons-related crimes in the martial arts, Kennedy aide Nicholas Allard concedes, is limited to scattered police reports that vaguely identify assailants as ninja warriors. Steve Schlesinger, director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, says that ``the lack of data reflects only our current inability to obtain it and not the magnitude of the problem to society.''

Statistics are ``beside the point,'' Mr. Allard agrees. ``Our primary concern is, how many children need to suffer avoidable accidents before action is taken?''

To protect against such avoidable accidents, the proposed legislation would let the United States Postal Service require mail-order suppliers to explain the legality of each weapons shipment. As the bill sails through the Senate Judiciary Committee under its chairman, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R) of South Carolina, the bill's co-sponsor, that provision will likely be extended to the United Parcel Service and other carriers.

Karl J. Duff, a lawyer and black-belt martial artist from Woodstock, Ga., says he thinks that requiring suppliers to explain their actions is unfair because it ``presumes illegality.'' Mr. Duff, who considers the bill ``well-intentioned paternalism,'' says it would also restrict mail-order sales for states that have no laws against martial-arts weapons. ``I don't want to see children hurt either,'' Duff says. ``But if there is a problem, it can be addressed adequately at the state level.''

Industry backers are concerned that the proposed legislation could lead to laws banning martial-arts weapons altogether. To publisher James that would only deprive legitimate martial artists, for it would force ``the criminal element to resort to more dangerous weapons.''

``Legislation doesn't always stop trafficking,'' agrees Frank Hartman, executive director of the Program in Criminal Justice at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. ``But it does send a message to [Americans] saying it's unacceptable.''

Kelley saves a salvo for those who worry about the sports' decline. ``Sports are not the issue. There's little legitimate sports use for [these] weapons.'' For him, the issue centers on children. ``If you get kids carrying these weapons,'' he says, ``and a little altercation occurs -- boom -- the weapon is right there.''

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