Group Stages Vigil Against GOP Gun Bill : Activism: Protest by physicians organization outside Rep. Christopher Cox’s office kicks off a national campaign to thwart the lifting of the ban on assault weapons.

About 20 Orange County residents, some wearing white lab coats and stethoscopes, staged a vigil outside U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox’s office Wednesday protesting the Republican-led bill to repeal the federal assault weapons ban.

The demonstration, organized by Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-violence group of health-care professionals, marked the beginning of a national campaign against a recently proposed bill that would lift handgun control laws.

Doctors and medical students with bullhorns shouted to drivers at stoplights about the scores of gun-related injuries they see every day.

“The more I see people wheeled in with gunshot wounds, the more I realize how prevalent guns are,” said Neal Handley, a UC Irvine medical student. “No one is immune to gun violence.”

Dr. Robert Wesley, the group’s chapter president, said that proactive measures are the only answer.

“As doctors, we can only treat gunshot wounds,” Wesley said. “But there’s no treatment for the rampant use of guns. As citizens, we must offer preventive solutions.”

Demonstrator Mary Leigh Blek’s fight against assault weapons began last summer when her eldest son was killed by a teen-age gunman.

Matthew Blek, 21, was walking his girlfriend home while working in New York last June when three teen-agers tried to rob him. One 15-year-old pointed a gun at Blek’s head and pulled the trigger.

Since then, the Blek family, of Mission Viejo, has worked with the physicians group and residents to spearhead an Orange County lobby and education group for weapon control.

A longtime Republican, Mary Leigh Blek said she does not buy the GOP’s argument that assault weapons laws are unconstitutional.

“People argue they have a right to own guns,” Blek said. “But what about my son’s right to be alive?”

She has spent the past few months lobbying legislators and visiting other groups to battle the manufacture of handguns. One target company is Bryco Arms Inc., based in Irvine and Costa Mesa.

The bullet that killed her son, who was a star college wrestler and physics student, came from a small, cheap handgun called a Saturday Night Special, Blek said. Bryco Arms Inc. produces 80% of these guns in the country.

“It’s really scary to know you can lose a family member from a gun that was probably manufactured in your own back yard,” said Matthew’s father, Charles Blek.

The vigil Wednesday ended after Wesley and Blek delivered a letter to Cox’s office asking the congressman (R-Newport Beach) to reconsider his opposition to gun control. Cox was not in the district and was unavailable for comment.

The protest was repeated in 10 other cities across the country Wednesday. Organizers said that Physicians for Social Responsibility will hold weekly vigils near representatives’ offices nationwide until Congress votes on the bill in May.

“This is just the beginning of an entire campaign,” said Holly Richardson, a spokeswoman for the physicians group.