Assault on a Senator

Lying gravely wounded in the intensive-care section of Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Mississippi Senator John Stennis signaled for a pad and pencil. Although a respirator mask covered his face, he scribbled a brief note to President Nixon, apologizing for his inability to serve as moderator at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington last week.

It was partly that kind of concern for the social graces, as well as his reputation for integrity and fairness throughout his 25-year career in the Senate, that made so much of Washington so angry over the shooting of the 71 -year-old Democratic leader in a petty street robbery. Despite his controversial pro-military and anti-integration stands, Stennis is widely regarded, even by legislative opponents, as one of the Senate's most capable and considerate members. As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, through which he has shepherded the Pentagon budgets, he has never been accused of denying colleagues every chance to argue opposing views. Despite their disagreement on racial issues, Ed Brooke of Massachusetts, the Senate's only black, considers Stennis always "a perfect gentleman."

As a friend of the military, Stennis was guest of honor at a reception given by the National Guard Association one night last week. Afterward, he drove his 1973 Buick sedan back to his $50,000 two-story brick home in one of Washington's better residential districts. Lined with tall ginkgo trees but lit by only the pale yellow glow of corner street lights, the Northwest Washington neighborhood has known little crime.

As Stennis got out of his car shortly before 7:40 p.m. and reached back inside to pick up his overcoat and briefcase, two black youths slipped up beside him. They demanded his money, grabbed his wallet (containing credit cards and an undetermined amount of cash), his Phi Beta Kappa key from Mississippi State, his gold pocket watch and his only coin, a quarter. Although he apparently did not resist, one of the thugs then struck him, and the other said something like, "Now we're going to shoot you anyway." Stennis fell from two shots, and the attackers fled. Despite his wounds, Stennis lurched to his feet and struggled into the house, where his wife was ready to serve dinner. He told her to telephone for help, then lay down on a sofa to await an ambulance.

A team of eight doctors operated on Stennis at Walter Reed for more than six hours, working primarily to repair the damage of one bullet that penetrated his stomach, pancreas and colon. They feared bacterial infection from the colon and harm from digestive enzymes flowing from the open pancreas into the abdominal cavity. The other bullet caused only a flesh wound in his left thigh. While his condition remained "very serious" and the prognosis for recovery was described as "guarded," his good physical condition from years of exercise, nonsmoking and almost no drinking was a factor in his favor.

Senseless. Washington police and the FBI found no evidence that the assailants knew the identity of the victim, and they assumed it was a random robbery aimed at any affluent resident of the neighborhood. President Nixon called the shooting a "senseless thing" and praised Stennis as "the most indispensable" of all the Senators in helping achieve "the honorable peace" in Viet Nam. He said the weapon used apparently was a .22-cal. "Saturday night special," the kind of cheap handgun that the Senate last year voted to ban. (The bill died because the House did not agree.) Nixon said he was asking Attorney General Richard Kleindienst to work out a new gun-control bill with better prospects of passing.

In the past, Nixon has not strongly supported such legislation, calling it a matter for state control. The Stennis shooting has revived the issue, however. The Senate Democratic caucus urged "utmost dispatch" on measures to "inhibit the criminal and his access to deadly weapons." Illinois Democratic Senator Adlai Stevenson introduced a bill requiring federal licensing of all handguns. "What happened to Senator Stennis and Governor Wallace and Senator Robert Kennedy could happen to any citizen, and frequently does," he argued. A similar bill was to be introduced in the House by Democrats Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois and Jonathan Bingham of New York. The prospects of passage are not strong, for the nation's gun fanciers are numerous and organized. Among their defenders in Congress has been Senator John Stennis.

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