Handgun Control Advocate Lauds Passage of Ban

Nationally known handgun control advocate Sarah Brady on Thursday applauded the city of Los Angeles’ ban on the sale of Saturday night specials, calling it an important step toward persuading state and federal officials to take similar action against cheap handguns.

“I was delighted” at the council’s 13-0 decision on Wednesday, Brady said at a Manhattan Beach press conference. “A unanimous decision like that and the message it will send to other areas around the country . . . starts a momentum that, I think, is very important.”

Brady, wife of former President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary Jim Brady, and chairwoman of Handgun Control Inc., made her remarks at a news conference called by Republican women and law enforcement officials endorsing the reelection of Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of Rolling Hills.

Those endorsing Harman and her support for legislation that would ban assault weapons included representatives of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Assn., the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Assn.

Also endorsing Harman was Tami Andersland, the daughter of Mike Tracy, one of two Palos Verdes Estates police officers killed two years ago at a Torrance hotel by a heavily armed gunman whose arsenal included a military-type assault rifle.

“The hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life was to look into the eyes of my 4-year-old little boy who adored my father and tell him the grandpa who carried him around on his shoulders the day before was killed by an evil man,” Andersland said in a voice that broke in anguish. “Four-year-olds should not have to know what murder is. Nobody should.”

The event, held at the memorial of slain Manhattan Beach police Officer Martin Ganz, was disrupted several times by supporters of Harman’s opponent, Republican Susan Brooks, who later held her own news conference to answer criticism of her support by the National Rifle Assn.

“I have great respect for Mrs. Brady and any American who has translated a personal tragedy into a crusade for their beliefs,” Brooks said. “The real issue here is what works best to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and free for law-abiding citizens.”

Her own decision to purchase a gun, Brooks said, came six years ago when she was “harassed by an emotionally unstable individual” and worried for the safety of herself and her family.

“My belief in the right to own a gun is personal, it is very personal and it has nothing to do with the NRA and everything to do with my family--with their freedom and their safety and my responsibility to my family.”