The weapons ban has not been an issue in the campaign so far, but the Clinton camp believes that the President's unequivocal support for the ban, which is popular with the vast majority of voters, has been a mainstay of his political strength.

Asked whether the weapons ban was the main item left to be decided, Myers said, "Yes, it's along those lines."

In the manga/anime Gintama, the main character, Gintoki Sakata, wields a bokken as opposed to a katana, as the story takes place in an Edo period of an alternate timeline where a weapons ban has been imposed by imperialistic aliens.

Mounds of Mail Looking back on it, the Republican senators say their fight to overturn the weapons ban was lost when what had been a matter of inside politics went suddenly and noisily public.

Politicians have said Mr. Clinton's support for the weapons ban was among the burrs that rubbed voters the wrong way last fall, and he took some pains to repair that damage.

James J. Baker, the legislative director of the National Rifle Association said measures like the semiautomatic weapons ban do not pass because they do not address the central crime issue.

"Treaties and weapons bans are designed to fit the times," T'Rul said.

Intergovernmental consideration of a chemical and biological weapons ban was initiated in 1968 within the 18-nation Disarmament Committee, which, after numerous changes of name and composition, became the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in 1984.

A regional arms pact would be more creative than a continued ban, which signals that we think that nothing has changed between us and Latin America in the 20 years that the weapons ban has been "in effect."