Vulgar Gesture at Feinstein Condemned

A controversial pro-gun councilwoman from Simi Valley has raised hackles in her hometown by making an obscene gesture at Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Councilwoman Sandi Webb said she got angry at Feinstein earlier this week during a meeting of California city officials in Washington when the senator asked for their help fighting a repeal of the state’s ban on assault weapons.

Strictly speaking, Webb raised her fist at the senator with the middle digit extended, then stormed out. Colloquially put, Webb gave Feinstein the finger. Flipped her the bird.

Feinstein missed the gesture, but when told of it later she was unruffled: “I’ve been flipped off by bigger birds than that,” she said, according to Susan Kennedy, her press secretary.

But Webb’s flamboyant defiance embarrassed her fellow council members and displeased local members of the National Rifle Assn.

And it adds to a litany of controversial acts by the Libertarian two-term councilwoman who once called a graffiti tagger’s killer “a crime-fighting hero” and proudly brags that she illegally packs a pistol.

Webb was unapologetic.

“She started off with the assault rifle ban and the evils of the NRA, and ‘Nobody needs automatic weapons to go duck hunting and bear hunting,’ and on and on and on, and I blew it,” Webb said Thursday. “I was so pissed at her, I got up and left.”

Mayor Gregg Stratton hinted that unless Webb apologizes, the city may have to act in some way to mend fences. “Whether you like Dianne or not, there are certain rules and decorum and civility that have to be followed in dealing with other officials,” he said. “And I think [Webb] broke one.”

Said Mike Mason, president of the East Ventura County chapter of the NRA, “If it’s as reported, I find it deplorable. . . . I totally disagree with her way of going about things, but like the other council members said, she’s entitled to her opinions.”