Roberti Will Seek Final Passage Today of Measure to Ban Assault Weapons

Senate leader David A. Roberti decided Wednesday to play it safe and seek final legislative passage today of his bill to ban most military-style assault weapons.

Roberti said he will submit the proposal to the full Senate, which has already overwhelmingly approved an earlier version of the bill, instead of sending it to a two-house conference committee where it could be subjected to possibly fatal amendments.

Clear Distinction Required

Senate approval would send the heavily lobbied measure to Gov. George Deukmejian, who has said he will sign a semiautomatic assault weapons bill, provided that it would not create “confusion and uncertainty.”

The governor said any bill he signs must make a clear distinction between military-style assault guns and the legitimate firearms of hunters and recreational shooters.

If signed, the bill would make California the first state in the nation to enact an assault-weapon ban. The bill would ban the manufacture or sale of about 60 specific semiautomatic assault guns, including such imports as the AK-47 and Uzi and the American-made Colt AR-15. People who already legally own such weapons and want to keep them would be required to register them.

“We should move with the legislation while the iron is hot,” Roberti told reporters in explaining why he decided to seek final Senate action today rather than putting the bill into a conference committee. He had considered such a move as a possible way to further “strengthen” the measure.

The danger in doing so, he noted, is that any bill fashioned by a conference committee would be subject to yet another floor vote in each house. The legislation cleared the Assembly on Monday without a vote to spare, however, and Roberti was urged by backers not to jeopardize it with another Assembly vote.

“I think it is the wisest thing to do in order to secure its passage,” Roberti said of seeking a final Senate vote today.

Both Roberti’s bill and a nearly identical measure by Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) would make it a felony, effective Jan. 1, to manufacture, import, sell or possess without a special permit any of the banned guns.

Residents who legally possessed such a gun before June 1 would be permitted to keep it by registering the weapon with the state Department of Justice by 1991. Possession of these guns would generally be restricted to the owner’s home or business and to approved firing ranges and certain exhibitions.

‘Technical’ Defects

Roberti said plans call for putting Roos’ Assembly bill into a conference committee as a backup measure to later clean up any “technical” defects in the Senate bill or for activation in case the Senate measure unexpectedly founders.

Kevin Brett, press secretary to Deukmejian, noted that while the governor is “amenable” to signing an assault gun ban, “he will make a final decision when he has the bill before him.” Deukmejian has 12 days in which to act after receiving the legislation or it automatically becomes law.

Spokesman Steve Mays of the National Rifle Assn., which mounted a massive lobbying campaign against the bill, said the organization will turn its attention to Deukmejian and “show him why we are concerned about this bill.”