GUN WATCH : Clip Job

Today, with the help of three crucial swing votes, an Assembly committee can reverse its misguided decision to kill legislation prohibiting the manufacture, possession and sale of high-volume ammunition magazines in California.

AB 1128--which would limit ammunition clips to 10 bullets in rifles, 17 bullets in pistols and six shells in shotguns--easily passed the Senate earlier this year and received a strong endorsement from state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. Yet last week it went down to defeat by a 10-8 margin in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Noticeably absent on the roll call were Valerie Brown (D-Sonoma), Bob Epple (D-Cerritos) and Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). This time they should support the bill. So should Jim Costa (D-Hanford), Paul Horcher (R-Diamond Bar) and Charles W. Quackenbush (R-San Jose)--who voted no on AB 1128 but have supported gun-control measures in the past.

Gian Luigi Ferri’s rampage through a San Francisco law office in July left nine people dead, including Ferri, and six others wounded. If that isn’t enough to jar these legislators into action, it’s hard to imagine just what it would take before something is done. Each of the two TEC-DC-9 semiautomatics that Ferri carried used 50-round clips.

No one is suggesting that AB 1128 will stop gun violence. Indeed, stricter limits on clips along with a ban on all military-style assault weapons would be preferable.

But for now this measure represents progress. Ammunition magazines that hold 30, 50 or even 100 bullets have no rightful place in California.