A Tighter Gun Law

The carnage created by military-style assault weapons in city streets may yet shock California’s state government into a rational regulation of firearms. One of the most welcome signs of this incipient sanity was the Assembly Public Safety Committee’s recent unanimous approval of a measure, AB 497, that would help keep guns out of the hands of children, criminals and the deranged.

That the endorsement of this self-evidently sensible goal by eight responsible adults can be termed historic is testimony to the effectiveness of the National Rifle Assn.’s well-financed campaign of vengeful bullying in the state capital. Were it not for the reign of terror the firearms fanatics traditionally have imposed on the Legislature, the ends pursued by AB 497’s author, Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento), would appear too reasonable to debate.

Connelly’s bill would amend the regulations already applied to concealable weapons, and extend them to all firearms. All sales of all guns, whether by a dealer or private party, would involve a 15-day wait between purchase and delivery. This brief interval would allow the state Department of Justice to determine that the prospective buyer is not a minor, a convicted felon or a person held to be mentally infirm under the law. The latter category would cover individuals who during the previous five years had been admitted to a mental health facility as a danger to self or others under the provisions of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act.

The necessity of this re-definition is demonstrated by the fact that out of the 291,000 gun buyers whose backgrounds were checked by the state last year under the existing law, only 13 were found to be mentally infirm.

The Connelly bill awaits a hearing by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. It deserves a quick trip through both legislative chambers and then on to Gov. George Deukmejian for signature.