Keep the Wild West in the Past

Coming soon to a mall near you: a whole gang of solicitors seeking signatures to qualify initiative petitions for the Nov. 3 election ballot. More than 50 petitions now are in circulation. Most won’t make the ballot, and there is one in particular that Californians should make certain does not qualify. That measure would wipe out a number of the state’s existing gun control laws and greatly liberalize the conditions under which a citizen could carry a concealed weapon.

The proposed constitutional amendment is sponsored by a group of 39 residents, mostly in the Sacramento Valley, under an umbrella organization called California Firearms Reform Committee. It would nullify any current law that requires the licensing or registration of “commonly possessed” firearms, defined as handguns, rifles or shotguns. Any person could receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon if he or she had completed a gun safety course and did not have a criminal background.

The measure also contains some tough rules against criminals, including a potential life term for anyone using a firearm in committing any felony. But the heart of the measure is to turn back the clock to a frontier era in terms of owning or carrying a gun. A majority of Californians have demonstrated repeatedly that they do not want their state to be an armed camp. The best way to deal with this initiative is to keep it off the ballot in the first place.