HIT-AND-MISS CRACKDOWN ON WEAPONS BOOKS

Ban on bomb information is lopsided, shaky

WANT TO BUILD a pipe bomb? Assemble a land mine? Construct a
flamethrower? Go to the Internet -- where booksellers offer dozens of
anti-social how-to manuals. You can probably get the books within 24
hours and be blowing things up the next day.

Worrisome? Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Orrin Hatch thought so, and so
last year they pushed through the Senate a bill that bans the
publication or dissemination of information on bomb-making. Web site
operators, newspapers, publishing houses or booksellers that violated
the ban would face up to 10 years in prison.

Internet sellers react

The impact of the ban was immediate -- especially online. As soon as
President Clinton signed Feinstein and Hatch's bill into law in August,
Paladin Press, a publisher and bookseller that promotes itself as ``home of
the action library,'' removed 75 books on explosives and extreme weapons --
with titles like ``How to Destroy Bridges'' and ``Breath of the Dragon:
Homebuilt Flamethrowers'' -- from its online store. Loompanics, another
niche publisher and bookseller, also took explosives-related books off its
Web site.

``This is a powerful set of amendments, which I am convinced can do a
great deal to reduce criminal violence in America,'' Feinstein said.

Don't be so sure. Log on to the Web right now and you can find another
online vendor that sells almost all the titles Paladin and Loompanics
no longer do.

What's more, unlike those two companies, which operate relatively
bare-bones sites, this bookseller includes helpful reviews from
previous customers. ``Breath of the Dragon'' draws this rave: ``I just
bought this book two months ago and built a flamethrower, boy it is
one hell of a hobby weapon.'' Another reader gushes about ``Chemistry
of Powder and Explosives'': ``I read this book and realized I could
become an expert bomber.''

Why isn't this online bookseller also running for cover? Because the
seller in question is Amazon.com, and it, along with other big-time
booksellers, is virtually immune from the new law.

All of which makes Feinstein and Hatch's legislation something of a
sham.

Good intentions

The problem is that in trying to ensure that their legislation wasn't
so broad as to be unconstitutional, Feinstein and Hatch applied it
only to sellers who ``intend'' the bomb-making information to be used
to commit crimes. Booksellers like Amazon (not to mention Barnes &
Noble and Borders) sell every kind of book imaginable, from ``Curious
George'' to ``Mein Kampf'' -- so they can plausibly argue that they
intend only to amass profits and satisfy customers.

Paladin and Loompanics, on the other hand, publish carefully selected
collections aimed at highly specific niche markets; both companies have
mission statements that stress, among other things, self-defense, military
preparedness and survivalism. Proving their ``intent'' isn't hard -- as a
federal court demonstrated three years ago, when it ruled that the family
of a man killed by someone who had read the Paladin title ``Hit Man: A
Technical Manual for Independent Contractors'' could sue the company.

But, in trying to separate wholesome, mainstream booksellers from
fringe outfits, Feinstein and Hatch have not only created a loophole
big enough to fit a flamethrower through, they've also subverted their
efforts at constitutionality. Without the ``intent'' clause, the bill
is unconstitutionally broad. But with it, the bill discriminates
against some sellers, which probably also makes it
unconstitutional.

``The problem with judging intent is that it can create favoritism and
selective censorship,'' said Professor Laurence Tribe of the Harvard
Law School.

From bombs to drugs

Given these problems, you'd think the Feinstein-Hatch duo might call
its efforts to a halt. Quite the opposite: Using their bomb-making law
as a model, the two recently wrote another piece of legislation --
this one about making drugs.

As part of a larger bill that targeted methamphetamine manufacturers,
Feinstein and Hatch inserted a measure to ban the publication and
dissemination of all information on illegal drug-making. In November,
the bill sailed through the Senate. It is now before the House.

Like their bomb-making legislation, Feinstein and Hatch's drug bill
relies on ``intent.'' And once again, not surprising, niche publishers
and booksellers are scared.

Michael Hoy, the president of Loompanics, has already vowed to remove
from the company's Web site his entire stock of drug-making books,
which includes titles such as ``Indoor Marijuana Horticulture'' and
``Opium for the Masses,'' if the bill becomes law.

``I don't want to go to prison for 10 years,'' he said.

The famously pro-marijuana magazine High Times, which in recent years
has operated a lucrative online bookstore, is currently consulting its
lawyers. ``Our entire Web site may have to come down,'' says
multimedia director John Holmstrom. (Even the magazine itself might be
imperiled if the bill becomes law.)

Meanwhile, across the Web at Amazon.com, all but two of Loompanics'
drug books are offered. You can still buy the company's classics such
as ``Hydroponic Heroin,'' which is paired with a glowing reader
review: ``Learn how to easily make your own heroin. . . . I made a
batch of opium seed tea the first night I read the book! I wigged
hard! Thanx.''

Other Loompanics titles such as ``Opium for the Masses'' have equally
appreciative reviews: ``After 30 minutes of reading this book, I was
so excited about opium I could barely contain myself!''

Amazon actually boasts a prodigious collection of books about drugs,
with 332 titles on marijuana alone, yet it has no plans to take any of
these off its virtual shelves. ``We sell the whole range of books,''
explains Amazon representative Patty Smith, ``and I can't see how this
law would impact our practices.'' That's the problem.