Commission Chairman Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, former governor of California, summing up the commission's findings at a news conference in Washington.




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Background: The National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws recommended Thursday (Jan. 7) that no one i the United States be allowed to carry pistols or other handguns--except for policemen and members of the armed forces.

Under the commission's recommendations, all firearms would have to be registered. It would be illegal for anyone other than police and military people to possess them.

The commission also recommended that capital punishment be abolished and that marijuana possession be made punishable only by fines---rather than jail sentences.

The 12-member commission submitted its recommendations to President Nixon. It proposed a 366 page draft of a new criminal code --the first effort in U.S. history to rewrite the entire body of federal criminal laws. Although these reforms have been urged upon the government by the commission, they must then be submitted to the U.S. congress before they can be become law.