Another Good Gun-Safety Law for State

Today, people across the United States rightly regard California as a leader in the rational regulation of firearms. The laws they admire--and, in many cases, hope to emulate--were enacted because the Democratic leaders in the state’s Legislature and its Republican governor were willing to set dogma and self-interest aside and undertake the hard work of pragmatically balancing the demands of public safety and the rights of legitimate sportsmen and hunters.

Balance, in fact, is the keen edge that slices through the Gordian knot of gun control. This is true because the American people have two sets of interests in this contentious issue: First, they firmly wish to reduce the level of criminal violence involving firearms, and to keep such weapons out of the hands of those who should not have them--convicted felons, the deranged and children. Second, they want to protect their right to use firearms in the pursuit of traditional sporting pastimes, such as hunting, target-shooting and gun collecting.

As California’s recent experience has shown, these two sets of interests need not be mutually exclusive. Passage of a ban on carefully specified military-style assault weapons has not eliminated semi-automatic rifles and shotguns designed and built purely for sporting purposes. Enactment of a 15-day waiting period between the sale and delivery of any firearm has made a measurable contribution to public safety without imposing any burdensome inconvenience on law-abiding gun buyers.

Gov. George Deukmejian now has on his desk a measure that stands firmly in this pragmatic tradition. Written by Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos), who is himself a hunter and gun owner, the bill has passed through both legislative chambers, and will become law if the governor either signs the measure or does nothing. Its provisions are simple: First-time purchasers of handguns will be required to pass a basic safety test or to take a brief, 4-hour course in the safe handling and storage of firearms. The cost of the course would be $17. Law enforcement officials, members of the military, licensed hunters and holders of concealed weapons permits would be exempt.

The common-sense purpose of the measure is to reduce the unacceptable number of accidents--many involving children--that occur because inexperienced handgun owners use or store their weapons in a careless manner.

The National Rifle Assn., which is alone in its opposition to the Areias proposal, does not believe that realization of this goal comports with its fundamentalist notion of Second Amendment freedoms. The state’s leading law-enforcement officials do not agree and neither should the governor.