Handgun Safety Bill Passes Senate : Legislation: The bill would require most first-time handgun buyers to take a course in firearm safety and storage. It now goes to the governor.

With no votes to spare, the Senate gave final legislative approval Thursday to a bill that would require most first-time handgun buyers to take a course in firearm safety and storage.

The bill, which now goes to Gov. George Deukmejian, passed after a senator caring for her seriously ill husband was summoned from his bedside in San Diego to cast the crucial vote.

Rushed from the airport to the Capitol, freshman Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) provided the vote that ended a marathon roll call that spanned 2 1/2 hours as some senators grumbled about missing lunch and delaying the start of their customary three-day weekend.

Susan Trowbridge, spokeswoman for Deukmejian, said the governor has not decided what action he will take on the bill.

Supported by law enforcement organizations throughout the state and opposed by the National Rifle Assn., the bill represented the third major attempt by the Legislature in the current two-year session to enact new controls on firearms.

Deukmejian signed two earlier measures, one banning military-style assault weapons and the other imposing a 15-day waiting period on the purchase of all firearms. Law enforcement supported both bills while the NRA opposed them.

Supporters of the bill approved Thursday contended that it was merely “common sense” to require novice handgun buyers to enroll in a two- to four-hour class in firearm safety and proper storage before taking possession of their guns.

Others, such as Sen. Daniel Boatwright (D-Concord), claimed that for the state to keep records of people who completed the course represented a form of registration, an anathema to many gun owners. Actual instruction in the handling and shooting of guns would not be required.

The bill, by Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos), required at least 21 favorable votes in the 40-member Senate. The final vote was 21-16. Previously, it cleared the Assembly with one vote to spare.

On a preliminary Senate roll call, the bill had come up two votes short of passage. President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and Areias lobbied hard but succeeded in winning over only Sen. Henry Mello (D-Watsonville).

Killea--whose husband, Jack, was released Wednesday from the hospital, where he was receiving treatment for cancer--said she received a call to return to Sacramento shortly before noon on Thursday. She cast the deciding vote at 1:40 p.m.

“Things seemed to be going well (with her husband), and I was able to get away,” she told reporters shortly before leaving to catch a return commercial flight to San Diego.

Such extraordinary efforts to win passage of a bill are relatively rare and few have occurred in recent years.

Currently, before a hunting license is issued, an applicant must take a gun safety course. Similarly, people licensed to use the chemical Mace must complete a six-hour training course.

“I can’t see any logical reason why any person is going to be hurt or his rights are going to be impinged upon in any way, shape or fashion by going through a (safety) course,” declared Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), a member of the NRA. “I just wish the NRA had the intelligence and perception to say, ‘Let’s pass this bill. We’ll go in and do the training.’ ”

But Sen. Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield) told the Senate that Drano, a powerful household chemical product used to unclog drains, “is much more lethal than handguns. So, maybe before (consumers) buy a can of Drano, we should require that they take a course and pass a test to make sure they know how to properly handle Drano.”

Roberti, who managed the Areias bill on the Senate floor, argued that the accidental deaths of children playing with unsafe and improperly stored handguns of adults could be curbed by safety education. “Gun safety prevents accidents. It is as simple as that,” he said.