Inside Report (2)

Hand-held metal detectors are used to prevent guns from being taken aboard airplanes. Why not use them out on the street? Some anti-crime specialists say this technology has great potential for detecting concealed handguns. They argue that the idea is worth exploring despite concerns over their effect on civil rights laws. No big-city police forces are known to be testing the detectors on the streets.

Confiscating the 47 million handguns in circulation in the US would be an unworkable method of dealing with violent crime and impossible to carry out, say law-enforcement officials -- even if the public were to look favorably on it.m