O.C. Doctors, Police Protest Repeal of Assault Gun Ban

As the House raucously debated a repeal of the assault weapons ban Friday, a group of local doctors, police officers and gun control advocates assembled on the steps of UC Irvine Medical Center to criticize the local congressmen who voted to allow the sale of the guns.

The legislators were accused of selling out the safety of the public to satisfy campaign promises to the National Rifle Assn., which has lobbied to repeal the ban.

They are “more interested in the profits of the gun industry and the NRA than in the wishes of the people they represent,” said Mission Viejo gun control activist Mary Leigh Blek, whose 21-year-old son Matthew was shot to death in 1994 by a robber with a handgun.

William Honigman, an emergency room physician, said, “I invite you to spend a day in the emergency room . . . watching us pick up the pieces of people who are victims” of shootings involving assault weapons.

The measure passed in the House on Friday and is on its way to the Senate.

Voting for the repeal were four of five congressmen representing Orange County: Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton). Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who has opposed the ban in the past, was traveling Friday and was unable to vote, though he voted against the ban in 1994.

The congressmen contend it infringes on the constitutional right to bear arms and unfairly punishes law-abiding gun owners.

But Blek said the local representatives do not have the support of even their conservative constituents, citing a 1995 survey by the office of Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine) that found 81% of residents support the ban on assault weapons. Nationally, three of four Americans support a prohibition on sales of assault weapons, Blek said, citing public opinion polls.

The ban was enacted by the 1994 federal crime bill, which outlawed 19 types of semiautomatic weapons such as Uzis and AK-47s.

Police at the press conference Friday said they see evidence that the ban is working to reduce gun-related crime and should not be repealed.

“It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever,” said Sgt. Don Blankenship, president of the Santa Ana Police Officers Assn. “These are weapons of mass destruction. [Their bullets] can go through walls and trees. They go through people and kill other people.”

The weapons, he said, allow criminals to outgun police.

If the bill passes in the Senate, a local protest group vowed to go after the local legislators who supported it. “We are prepared to challenge them with our voices and votes,” said Jim Walker, an organizer of the Orange County Citizens for the Prevention of Gun Violence.