LAGUNA NIGUEL : NRA Enters Battle Over BB Guns

What started as a low-key effort by city officials in April to reinstitute a ban on the discharge of BB guns within the city has become a center of controversy.

On Friday, the National Rifle Assn. officially became involved in the fray, sending a “legislative alert” to about 260 local members urging them to attend a meeting Tuesday in which the City Council is expected to take a final vote on the ban.

“It is a little tempest in a teapot,” said Robert Burke, a Laguna Niguel resident and NRA member who is leading the opposition to the ban. “I believe we must protect our freedom and liberties.”

But proponents of the ordinance, which has already gained the preliminary support of a council majority, say public safety is the real issue, not the constitutional right to bear arms.

“I think there’s a difference between bearing arms and discharging them within a urban setting,” Councilman James F. Krembas said.

Chris Sakrekoff, a Laguna Niguel resident whose 6-year-old son suffered permanent eye damage in a BB gun accident in early April, also supports the ban.

“It could possibly save somebody else from being injured,” she said.

It was the accident involving Sakrekoff’s son that sparked the proposal.

In another BB gun incident, a 12-year-old boy was injured in June when shot between the eyes with a pellet. A 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in the incident.

Proponents of the ban argue that Laguna Niguel, with a population of 50,000 and many houses packed tightly together, is not the appropriate place for the firing of BB guns.

“A high-powered BB gun has the potential of great velocity that cannot be contained in someone’s back yard or garage,” Sakrekoff said. “That containment can only be done in the proper environment--a target range.”

Under the ordinance, residents would be allowed to fire BB guns at designated commercial shooting ranges, including a new indoor range, On Target, being built on Camino Capistrano.

Also, the ordinance would restore a county code that governed the area for years, said Joe Davis, chief of police services.

Before January, 1991, it was illegal to discharge any firearm, including BB guns, within the city limits, Davis said. But a change in state law removed BB guns from the “firearms” category, which nullified the local BB gun discharge ban.

“The intent today is merely to restore an ordinance that was effective,” Davis said. “It is an ordinance very similar to those in 25 other cities (in the county).”

But opponents say it doesn’t make sense to bring back a “bad law.”

“It’s not going to stop anything,” said Brian Zolnoski, manager of True Outdoorsman sporting goods store in Mission Viejo. “It’s just going to make criminals out of honest citizens.”

Burke, a father of three young boys, said the ordinance would prevent responsible parents from teaching their children about guns and self-defense in the privacy of their own homes.

Councilman Paul Christiansen, who opposes the ordinance, said there should be some provision allowing residents to set up secure BB gun firing ranges within their property.

“The focus of this issue is to what extent our local city government intrudes on the private property rights of owners,” Christiansen said. “How far do we go?”