Registration of Assault Guns

Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) and state Sen. David Roberti (D-Los Angeles) reveal a double standard when they criticize the legitimate owners of firearms who are considering civil disobedience as a response to the new law controlling the so-called assault weapons. They ignore the violations by the police, who under their law are assigned the simple task of distributing the forms and instructions required for registration. These agencies have broken the law frequently, as many owners of the covered firearms can testify.

In exercising the only legal option open to them, owners have entered a policy agency and asked for the necessary form. Rudeness and lack of cooperation were the least of the problems (“Gun Owners Fire Volley at Bureaucrats,” Part A, Nov. 29). Bad information and misdirection were far more serious. Gun owners were told that the forms didn’t exist, were available somewhere else or were given the wrong form. Roos and Roberti are silent on these infractions of their law by the police.

The state Department of Justice is also a law breaker. The law requires that firearms be legally owned prior to June 1, 1989, to qualify for registration. Yet they designed a registration form that does not require the date of acquisition and the location of the firearm during this critical period. Owners who lived in Los Angeles and stored their firearms in L.A. during this period did so in violation of a local ordinance passed early in 1989. In this case, the firearms were not legally owned prior to June 1, 1989, and cannot be registered.

JERRY L. ALLEN

Woodland Hills