Senate OKs 15-Day Wait on Purchase of All Guns

In a dramatic reversal, the state Senate on Thursday passed legislation that for the first time would require purchasers of sporting rifles and shotguns to wait 15 days before taking possession of their firearms.

The bill now goes to the Assembly for concurrence in amendments. If passed, Gov. George Deukmejian said that unless there have been major changes, “I would plan to sign it” into law.

The legislation would make virtually all sales of guns in California subject to the delay while law enforcement authorities run background checks on the purchasers.

Senate approval represented an uphill victory for law enforcement organizations and a stunning election-year defeat for the National Rifle Assn. and other gun ownerorganizations.

Supporters keyed their arguments to imposing the 15-day wait as a “cooling-off” period for unstable people who might impulsively buy a gun and kill someone. The state has the same law for handguns.

“Let’s not read another headline about somebody who got ahold of a weapon, shot his wife and shot his kids and the Legislature did nothing about it,” Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) urged his colleagues. “We can save lives by passing this bill.”

Anxiously watching the session from the visitors gallery was a grieving Yuba City mother, Betty Morgan. She tightly held color photos of her 6- and 7-year-old daughters, who were slain by their father in December with a shotgun purchased 15 minutes earlier.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Morgan said after the Senate voted. “I feel satisfied that something good did come of this. My children did not die in vain.”

The bill by Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento) passed the Assembly last June on a 48-24 vote in the wake of enactment of legislation that outlawed assault weapons. But the bill was defeated in September by the Senate on a lopsided 14-22 vote after a major lobbying campaign by the NRA.

Since then, Connelly and his law enforcement supporters regrouped and mounted a counteroffensive that culminated Thursday in a bipartisan 23-10 vote to approve the bill, two more than the simple majority required in the 40-member Senate.

Historically, gun controls have been politically difficult to impose in California, which shares in the firearms tradition of the West.

Former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. was fond off recalling advice he said was given to him by his father, former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown: “In California, you don’t mess with a man’s gun or his car.”

But sentiment changed because of statewide revulsion among Californians to the Stockton schoolyard killing of five children in January, 1989. Shortly afterward, Deukmejian--once a foe of gun control bills--embraced the ban on assault weapons similar to the one used in Stockton and called for a 15-day waiting period on all gun purchases.

The NRA has argued that waiting periods do not deter criminals but do unnecessarily inconvenience law-abiding citizens who want firearms for self defense or sporting purposes. The gun owners’ group favors a proposed computerized system of “instant” background checks.

The Connelly bill would go into effect Jan. 1, 1991, and affect sales of virtually all rifles and shotguns. In addition, people who had been involuntarily held for a psychiatric evaluation could not buy a gun without approval from the psychiatric examiner or a Superior Court.

People convicted of misdemeanor crimes related to firearms would also be prohibited from buying or possessing a gun for 10 years. Now, felons, drug addicts or people with a history of mental illness cannot buy handguns but they can easily purchase rifles or shotguns over the counter.

Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), a former police chief of Los Angeles and a life member of the NRA, said the NRA “should be more reasonable” and back the bill. He said the proposal would curb passion shootings, adding that “any time you can cool off some nut who is angry, goes out and buys a gun to blow up the world, I have no objection to that as a policeman.”

Davis’ backing made it easier for some conservative Republicans to support the bill. Sen. William Craven (R-Oceanside), who voted against it last year, cast the 21st vote on Thursday to secure passage. Sen. Quentin Kopp (Ind.-San Francisco), also an opponent previously and one of the Senate’s most savvy politicians, switched and voted “aye” this time.

Sen. John Doolittle (R-Rocklin) accused law enforcement supporters of the Connelly bill of accepting a “placebo approach” to crime control and suggested that the true intent of such legislation is to “outlaw the private ownership of firearms.”

Here is the roll call by which the Senate approved, 23 to 10, the waiting-period bill for rifles and shotguns:

Democrats for (18): Alquist, San Jose; Ayala, Chino; Deddeh, Bonita; Dills, Gardena; Garamendi, Walnut Grove; B. Greene, Los Angeles; L. Greene, Carmichael; Hart, Santa Barbara; Killea, San Diego; Lockyer, Hayward; Marks, San Francisco; McCorquodale, San Jose; Petris, Oakland; Roberti, Los Angeles; Rosenthal, Los Angeles; Torres, Los Angeles; Vuich, Dinuba; Watson, Los Angeles.

Republicans for (4): Craven, Oceanside; Davis, Valencia; Morgan, Los Altos Hills; Russell, Glendale.

Independent for (1): Kopp, San Francisco.

Democrats against (3): C. Green, Norwalk; Mello, Watsonville; Presley, Riverside.

Republicans against (7): Beverly, Manhattan Beach; Doolittle, Rocklin; Leonard, Big Bear; Maddy, Fresno; Nielsen, Rohnert Park; Rogers, Bakersfield; Royce, Anaheim.

Absent or not voting (6): Bergeson (R-Newport Beach); Boatwright (D-Concord); Keene (D-Benicia); Montoya (D-Whittier); Robbins (D-Tarzana); Seymour (R-Anaheim).

Vacancy: 1.

NEXT STEP

The 15-day waiting period bill for purchase of rifles and shotguns will return to the Assembly for a final vote. If passed, it would then go to Gov. George Deukmejian.