May 29, 1981

Two gun-control bills that will go into effect Oct. 1 were signed into law today by Gov. William A. O'Neill. One mandates a five-year prison sentence for using a firearm while committing a serious crime and the other requires a one-year term for carrying a handgun without a permit. As he signed the bills in front of a crowd of reporters and camera crews in his office, Mr. O'Neill said he thought Connecticut had ''gone about as far as we possibly can go'' in gun-control legislation.

The Chase Manhattan Bank yesterday cut its prime lending rate to 20 percent from 20 1/2 percent, but many economists and analysts were reluctant to interpret the move as the start of a long-term drop in interest rates. Although Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan predicted in Washington that interest rates would decline in coming months, others expressed views closer to those of William V. Sullivan, senior vice president of the Bank of New York. ''The downturn in the Federal funds rate has only lasted a few days,'' Mr. Sullivan said, referring to the interest rates that banks charge for short-term loans to each other. ''The market has been too volatile of late for people to determine whether this drop is permanent.''

REAGAN MEETS WIFE OF SOVIET DISSIDENT: President Reagan and Vice President Bush during a White House meeting with Avital Shcharansky, wife of Anatoly Shcharansky, who is serving a prison term after conviction for treason.

In what is by far the strongest rebuke yet issued to a scientist involved in gene-splicing research, the National Institutes of Health yesterday outlined broad disciplinary action against a California professor who violated Federal guidelines in the sensitive new area of biology. The action reflects the importance attached to the fast-advancing field of recombinant DNA research by the Federal Government and insistence that all such work be done in a manner that is above reproach. Recombinant DNA research, known popularly as gene-splicing, and sometimes called genetic engineering, has been the subject of high hopes and much controversy in recent years. Some persons have been particularly concerned over the possibility that future experiments might involve deliberate and misguided attempts to change human genetic traits.

An American flag waves above the front lawn in the breeze. Inside the modest house, the floors are crowded with filing cabinets and cartons bulging with photocopies of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Departments of State and Defense. One wall bears a huge map of Southeast Asia, with scattered sites circled in red ink. Aging photographs of a dark-eyed and short-haired young man in uniform stare solemnly from tabletops and mantels.