The State : Stockton Votes Auto Rifle Ban

Rejecting lengthy testimony by gun control opponents, the Stockton City Council unanimously voted to outlaw the possession or sale of semiautomatic weapons such as the AK-47 used by a gunman last month to kill five children at a city school playground. Gun advocates decried the ordinance--a misdemeanor carrying a $500 fine and a maximum of six months in jail--as the first step toward taking away all weapons. “Gun control is one step toward turning America into a totalitarian police state,” gun owner Albert Stokes said. Vice Mayor Ron Coale commented after the 9-0 vote on the first reading that “no one on this council is naive enough to believe that the passage of this ordinance could have prevented the tragedy (at Cleveland School), but it sends a strong message to the kooks of this land, and more importantly a strong message to the Legislature, that we want to get tough.”