The State - News from Feb. 6, 1989

The National Rifle Assn. invited Stockton officials to a target shooting match with assault rifles in an effort to head off a local ban on such weapons that the City Council is expected to adopt today. But only one official--City Councilman and school principal Floyd Weaver--showed up at the event, designed to show that the kind of weapon used to murder five Stockton schoolchildren and wound 29 others in a Jan. 17 schoolyard massacre could also be used for sporting purposes. “He didn’t sound like one of our better friends,” J. P. Nelson, an NRA field representative, said after Weaver’s visit. “I don’t think that rapid-fire assault weapons should be allowed,” Weavers told reporters. Sixty-nine people competed in the “high-power service rifle” match at an area rifle range.