Senate OKs Ban on Cheap Handguns : Firearms: Measure on Saturday night specials passes narrowly and faces an uncertain future in the Assembly.

The state Senate on Thursday narrowly approved banning so-called Saturday night specials and other inexpensive handguns favored by criminals.

Passage of the bill by state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) represented the first time this session that a major gun control measure has cleared either house of the Legislature.

The measure would take federal standards barring importation of the guns and apply them to weapons manufactured and sold in California. The federal standards demand that certain safety requirements be met and that firearms be meant for sporting purposes, such as hunting.

Under this standard, many inexpensive handguns would be deemed unsafe and illegal. Violation could be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or a felony.

“If we do not allow a gun to be imported into the United States, we ought not to allow that same gun to be manufactured here in California,” Polanco told the Senate.

The proposal went to the Assembly on a 21-12 vote, the precise simple majority required in the 40-seat Senate. Two Republicans and two independents joined Democrats in voting for the bill (SB 933). The no votes were cast by Republicans and state Sen. Henry Mello of Watsonville, the Democratic floor leader.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the the evenly divided Assembly, where most substantial gun control bills this year have been rejected in committee.

Polanco, a former Assembly member, conceded that it will be very difficult to win approval in the lower house but said, “I’m going to work my butt off.” He said he believes that election year pressures for tighter restrictions on guns will work in his favor.

Senate opponents of the bill, similar versions of which have been easily defeated in the past, said the ban represents a useless gesture at fighting crime and would shut down six manufacturing plants in Southern California that employ an estimated 5,000 workers.

“The criminals love these gun ban laws,” said state Sen. Don Rogers (R-Tehachapi), a supporter of gun owners’ rights.

The federal government imposed its ban on importation of so-called non-sporting handguns in 1968 after Sirhan Sirhan assassinated U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Critics of Saturday night specials say they are unsafe, poorly constructed and unreliable. Various studies have shown that such weapons are disproportionately used in crimes.

The six companies that would be affected by the bill include Arcadia Machine & Tool in Irwindale; Davis Industries and Lorcin Engineering, both in Mira Loma; Phoenix Arms of Ontario, Sundance Industries in Valencia and Bryco Arms in Costa Mesa.

The companies manufactured an estimated 685,934 handguns in 1992, accounting for more than 80% of the Saturday night specials produced in the United States.