Earp Would Have Loved This Gunfight

Now wait, nobody says you can’t own a gun. Nobody’s even saying you can’t carry a gun. All we’re saying is you can’t carry one in town. Now that’s not so much to ask, is it?

--Lawman Virgil Earp to divided townspeople in the movie “Tombstone.”

For a few hours last week, the 1880s rhetoric of Tombstone, Ariz., ricocheted around the California Assembly chamber. Swap a word or two and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) could have been Virgil Earp pleading for gun control.

It didn’t take much imagination sitting in that Gold Rush-era legislative chamber to envision being almost anywhere in the Old West while leaders of a fed-up, frightened citizenry debated how best to defend against outlaws. Should we be arming or disarming the good people? Do law-abiding citizens need to pack side arms for protection? Or does that just lead to mischief?

At issue was Katz’s bill to increase the penalty for illegally carrying a concealed weapon. He wanted to jack up the punishment from a misdemeanor to a possible felony, as it is already for toting blackjacks or brass knuckles. His target was gangbangers. But Republicans--normally the party of law and order--fiercely objected. Many of their friends lug guns illegally and shouldn’t be treated as felons, they argued. Instead, the Republicans tried to make it easier for law-abiding citizens to obtain handgun permits. Democrats objected. And nothing passed.

Katz waved a side arm for dramatic effect. An antagonist--Assemblyman Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Arcadia)--called him a liar. There were a lot of frayed nerves and gnashed teeth and nasty sarcasm. There could have been more political courage; some legislators plainly bowed to the gun lobby.

But the quarrel was rooted in much more than political terrorism by the gun lobby, which lately has intimidated some lawmakers by attempting to recall Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys), who led the state ban on assault rifles. Rather, this argument was rooted in age-old, competing philosophies about the private use of guns in subduing bad guys.

*

In the nonfiction book “Frontier Justice,” a ruffian named Jackson coolly tells a villager, Goodbread, that he intends to shoot him.

“I’m unarmed,” says Goodbread.

“So much the better,” says Jackson, who then shoots his victim through the heart.

*

“We all know the criminals prefer unarmed victims,” noted Assemblywoman Kathleen M. Honeycutt (R-Hesperia), who told her colleagues a personal story that illustrated the case for carrying a gun:

“I was driving home late at night, coming up the Cajon Pass, when a car attempted to run me off the road. . . . They turned their inside light on, making obscene gestures. . . . I didn’t have to use my gun, but it was a deterrent. I turned my inside light on, laid the gun on the dash and that’s the last I saw of them. Women are particularly vulnerable.”

Later, I asked her about the incident. It happened 13 years ago and, yes, she had a gun permit. There were “four guys, really scuzzy,” she recalled. “I had my gun with me on the seat, loaded. You don’t carry a gun unloaded; it’s worthless. . . . (Driving) in the slow lane, I took the gun in my right hand, laid it across my left arm like I was sighting them in, then just laid it on the dash. They punched it.”

Honeycutt, 52, still carries her .38 special, loaded with deadly hollow-points.

Another female legislator argued passionately that this is madness.

“I grew up with guns. . . . I have a lot of respect for them,” said Assemblywoman Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), 62. “I do not feel the need to go around with a gun in my purse. . . . I trust law enforcement. I don’t want vigilantes.

“I also believe in statistics. I know that the more guns you get, the more deaths you get. I will feel safer if every person does not have a gun in his or her pocket. Somebody might mistake me for someone else. Also, I don’t think everybody is going to go around getting trained. And even if they do, maybe it’s better if they can’t shoot too straight.”

But Assemblyman Trice Harvey (R-Bakersfield), noting that cops are spread thin, spoke directly to TV viewers at home and urged: “I hope you have the guts to protect yourself. . . . I hope California isn’t going to be a state of wimpy people.”

*

In the movie “Tombstone,” the Earp brothers--Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil--ban guns in town and this precipitates the shootout at OK Corral. Tombstone is tamed. But the angry argument over who gets to carry guns persists today throughout the land. There are too many outlaws and not enough lawmen.