Gun Control: True or False: This Is a Test?

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After Detroit passed a city ordinance last year requiring handgun purchasers to take a four-hour, $60 safety course, the number of new permits issued dropped by almost half. Gun enthusiasts demanded an easier procedure, and that's just what they got.

Today anyone in Michigan who wants to buy a handgun must take a 10-item true-or-false test, responding to such propositions as "You should treat every pistol as if it were loaded" and "You should always keep the barrel of a pistol pointed in a safe direction." Just in case the questions are too tough, the answers are all "true" and are printed on the back.

"Pretending to have a test is worse than having no test at all," says Bernie Horn, director of state legislation for Handgun Control, Inc. "You have to do more to get a driver's license." But Kevin Frailey, a member of the Basic Pistol Safety Review Board, says, "It wasn't supposed to stop a person from purchasing a firearm." On the contrary: in April and May alone, Detroit issued 530 handgun permits. In all of 1990 it gave out 1,908.