Assembly OKs Ban on Manufacture of Cheap Handguns

In a significant loss for gun groups, the Assembly approved legislation Thursday that would ban the manufacture and sale of Saturday night specials, most of which are made by a half-dozen firms in Southern California.

The bill by Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) seeks to ban a class of cheap, poorly made and easily concealable handguns that are widely used in crimes. Some of the weapons, which often sell for less than $100, are reputed to go off unexpectedly.

The bill not apply to sales of existing guns between individuals.

“What we’re doing is necessary and long overdue,” Polanco said.

The Assembly approved the measure on a vote of 42-33, with the support of 39 Democrats and three Republicans. The bill must return to the Senate, where approval appears likely.

Gov. Pete Wilson has not said whether he will sign it into law. But Polanco said he is confident that Wilson would sign it, saying, “They haven’t said ‘No.’ ”

The measure has national significance, given that 80% of the targeted weapons are made in California, and that the handguns are widely used in crimes nationwide, particularly by youths.

A recent study by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that the guns that would be eliminated are the weapons most frequently confiscated from juvenile delinquents in Atlanta, Cleveland, Memphis, Milwaukee, New York and several other cities.

Gun proponents contend that the measure would ban several types of higher-priced guns. Foes of the bill also charge that the measure is a step toward banning all handguns, and warned that it will raise the cost of guns to a minimum of $300, meaning that poor people who want guns for self protection will be priced out.

“This is all about keeping guns out of the hands of poor people,” said Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico). “Criminals will pay any amount of money for a gun. They will kill for a gun. . . . [Polanco’s bill] takes guns away from the poorest people who want to protect themselves.”

Handguns targeted by the bill include those made by the so-called “Ring of Fire” companies in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The firms include Bryco Arms, Davis Industries and Lorcin Engineering. They are run by members of gun manufacturer George Jennings’ family and past associates.

“We’re like the tobacco companies, exporting death around the country,” said Assemblyman Louis Caldera (D-Los Angeles), one of the leading proponents of the measure and the lead author of a similar bill in the Assembly.

Caldera, who is resigning from the Assembly for a job in the Clinton Administration, interrupted his move to Washington to appear on the Assembly floor for the vote in the lower house.

The Saturday night special bill is one of several awaiting final votes in the closing days of this year’s legislative session. Among the other major measures is one by Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda) to expand California’s ban on assault weapons.

Polanco’s bill, SB 500, would make it a misdemeanor to make guns deemed unsafe. Gun dealers who sell such weapons also would face misdemeanor charges.

Polanco’s measure does not go as far as Caldera’s, which has stalled in the Senate. The Polanco bill has wide support from gun control advocates who characterize the differences between the two measures as minor compromises needed to win support in the Legislature.

“It’s extremely significant,” said Luis Tolley, Western director of Handgun Control. “If California sets safety standards, that will affect the entire gun industry nationwide.”

To drum up support for the measure, Handgun Control has been airing radio ads in the district of at least one Assembly member urging his support, and also has been waging a campaign of phone calls to other Assembly members.

“Six months ago, most people would have said there was not a prayer that this bill would have passed,” Tolley said. “The politics have shown how strongly Californians support gun control laws.”

Law enforcement groups also are backing the measure, and the California Police Chiefs’ Assn. has made passage of the measure among its highest priorities this year.

“It is a basic product safety issue,” said Los Gatos Police Chief Larry Todd, a past president of the police chiefs group and one of the strongest advocates of the measure. “For the first time, we will place product safety standards on firearms, the same way we place safety standards on automobiles.”

Todd said the measure won’t make the streets safer “overnight.” But he predicted that in the coming years, the existing stock of cheap handguns would disappear if the measure becomes law. Newer guns will be safer, he said, and that will reduce accidental shootings.

“It will set a tone in the United States that for the first time firearms ought to be manufactured with basic safety standards,” Todd said. “. . . It will take the cheap, poorly manufactured handguns off the market.”

The measure would rely on federal safety standards, which are used to ban the importation of cheap handguns. The federal standards, which were adopted after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 with an imported handgun, permitted domestic gun makers to continue making the weapons.

The federal standards cover a variety of characteristics. Among the requirements, pistols must have a safety that can be switched on to limit accidental firings, and must be at least 4 1/2 inches high by 6 inches long. Handguns also must be able to pass a “drop test” in which they do not discharge when dropped from a height of three feet.

Polanco’s bill would require that the state Department of Justice test the guns in laboratories that don’t yet exist. The bill says that unless the guns are approved by the lab, they could not be made or sold in the state.

National Rifle Assn. lobbyist Stephen Helsley said the task of testing the guns would be so great that it cannot be completed. The measure, he warned, could “stop the sale of all handguns” in the state.

“It can’t be done even with funding, and there isn’t funding,” Helsley said. “This bill takes in everything and its aunt, because it’s drafted by people who know [the firearms industry].”

Unlike the Caldera bill, Polanco’s measure would permit individuals to sell their guns to other individuals. It would take effect Jan. 1, 1999, rather than January 1998.

Additionally, it does not contain a provision specifically allowing local governments to approve strong handgun measures, although Polanco says he believes cities and counties could adopt such ordinances.

Republicans gave the measure its final margin of victory. They were Assemblymen Steve Kuykendall of Rancho Palos Verdes, Brooks Firestone of Los Olivos and Jim Cunneen of San Jose.

“I don’t like the proliferation of cheap weapons,” Kuykendall said. “. . . I never had a problem with people owning guns. But these don’t help make for a safer environment.”

Three Democrats voted against the measure--Roderick Wright of Los Angeles, Joe Baca of Rialto and Denise Ducheny of San Diego. Assemblyman Dick Floyd (D-Wilmington) did not vote.