Wilson Vetoes Package of Gun Control Bills

Denouncing it as a “cynical effort to con the public,” Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday vetoed legislation aimed at strengthening California’s ban on military-style assault weapons.

In a series of unusually stinging veto messages, the governor asserted that tougher penalties on gun-wielding criminals--not the enactment of new controls on firearms--are a proven remedy to reduce crime.

Supporters of the bill, which narrowly cleared the Legislature last month, argued that the election-year legislation needed to be enacted because California’s existing assault-gun law is in jeopardy of being struck down by the courts.

The veto was a severe reversal for police chiefs, educators, gun-control activists and others who argued that violence in California would be curbed by imposing new restrictions on the availability of firearms.

“If California suffers another assault-weapon massacre, Gov. Wilson will be remembered for his failure to get these deadly weapons off the street,” said Luis Tolley of Handgun Control Inc.

In addition to rejecting the Democratic-dominated Legislature’s efforts to toughen the existing ban on high-capacity, rapid-fire assault guns, the governor also vetoed two other gun control bills.

One, designed to rid the state of so-called Saturday night special handguns, would have subjected pistols and revolvers to a series of safety tests before they could be sold. The second would have required gun dealers to offer trigger-locks or other “use limitation” devices for sale when they became commercially available.

The governor also signed several relatively noncontroversial gun bills, including a measure that would require a second criminal background check on handgun purchasers who failed to pick up their firearms within 30 days.

Wilson, an expert marksman while in the Marine Corps, directed his heaviest fire at the assault gun bill (AB 2560) by Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda).

The bill was designed to eliminate copycat versions of about 75 guns that were outlawed by make and model under California’s landmark 1989 assault gun law.

The law was enacted in the wake of a massacre at a Stockton schoolyard by a man wielding a legal AK-47 assault rifle. Five children were killed and 29 others and a teacher were wounded.

In the past nine years, some manufacturers have produced new guns that are virtual replicas of the outlawed weapons, except for cosmetic changes.

The Perata bill would have added to the existing law a series of new definitions on what constitutes an illegal assault gun, and would have limited to 19 the number of bullets a semiautomatic weapon could accept from a single magazine.

Additionally, a semiautomatic rifle would qualify as an assault gun if it contained generic military characteristics such as a flash suppressor, pistol grip or folding stock.

But Wilson said the Perata bill, strongly supported by Handgun Control Inc., mixed the issues of firing capacity and cosmetic appearance. As a result, he said, it “may be more susceptible to constitutional attack than the law it seeks to replace.”

Offering an analogy, the governor said: “If this bill’s focus were high-speed sports cars, it would first declare them ‘chariots of death’ and then criminalize possession of Ramblers equipped with racing stripes and wire wheels.”

Taking personal aim at Perata, who the governor claimed refused to work out a compromise, Wilson criticized the bill as a “cynical effort to con the public about what kind of legislation actually will protect” Californians against gun violence.

Wilson cited as an example of effective crime control legislation the three-strikes sentencing bill he signed in 1994, as well as other measures that require longer sentences for criminals who use firearms. Such laws, he said, have contributed to the decline of crime in California in the past four years.

“That’s how to deal with gun violence,” Wilson said.

Perata, who pursued an uphill battle to win passage of his bill during an election year, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the governor’s veto, calling it “inaccurate and way off base.”

Assuming that the appellate courts strike down the existing assault gun ban, Perata said, the retiring two-term governor “will leave this state with no assault weapon ban. When he arrived, we had one.”

The veto also drew criticism from others, including Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor, who promised that if he is elected, he would sign such legislation.

“It’s unfortunate that [state Atty. Gen. and Republican gubernatorial nominee] Dan Lungren and Pete Wilson were AWOL on the effort to ban assault weapons,” Davis said.

Lungren, whom Davis has charged with weak enforcement of the current law, declined to comment on the veto. Lungren had said that he had no position on the Perata bill because he is defending the current law against legal challenge.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) said the Legislature had worked to “tone down” the assault-gun and other gun control bills to compromise with Republicans. But he charged that Wilson’s veto reflected the GOP’s viewpoint, which he called “out of step with the electorate.”

The veto was welcomed, however, by the National Rifle Assn., a steadfast opponent of controls on gun ownership, which had criticized the Perata bill and other measures as “flawed.”

“I think what the governor has recognized is that these types of gun control bills have nothing to do with crime control,” said Steve Helsley, California lobbyist for the NRA. “These are what I would call political buffoonery.”

Wilson’s veto of the handgun bill was the second time in two years that he had struck down a measure designed to stop the making of Saturday night specials.

The latest measure (SB 1500), by Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles), would have required pistols and revolvers to pass safety tests before consumers could purchase them.

But Wilson said that an “infinitely greater risk” to the public are criminals with guns.

Replied Polanco: “Pete Wilson chose the gun lobby over public safety.”

Wilson also vetoed the trigger-lock bill, authored by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), arguing that it could allow local governments to enact ordinances that are more stringent than those allowed by state law.

Times staff writers Mark Gladstone and Amy Pyle contributed to this report.

A special report, “Outgunned: Holes in America’s Assault Weapons Laws,” is available on The Times’ Web site at https://www.latimes.com/outgunned