Shootings Usher In New Era of Gun Control

All the maimings and killings are moving the gun control fight to a new level, at least in California. You can hear it in the rhetoric and in the more ambitious goals.

Liberal Democrats are sounding bolder, openly acknowledging what the gun lobby long has feared: that they really would like to ban all firearms.

Conservative Republicans have turned timid, barely whispering the old banality about guns not killing people--or how private arsenals may be needed for the next revolution.

Meanwhile, a new battle is shaping up over registration of firearms and licensing of their owners. That’s the next big goal of gun control advocates.

In California, where Democrats now firmly control the state Capitol, assault weapons and junk handguns are being banned. Handgun purchases are being limited to one a month. Soon, a bill will be enacted requiring guns to be sold with child safety locks. There also very likely will be tighter regulation of gun shows. The next logical step is registration and licensing.

Registration would make it easier for police to trace weapons used in crimes. Licensing would require gun buyers to show they can safely handle a firearm. It also would help keep firearms away from mental misfits and bad guys.

California already records handgun sales, but doesn’t keep track of ownership through annual registration--as the DMV does cars. Handgun buyers also must obtain a firearms safety certificate, but there’s no competency test, as with beginning drivers. And while all gun buyers must now undergo a background check, these gunner profiles could be updated with periodic licensing.

Myself, I’d also require a license to buy ammunition, or any ammo parts. No bullets, no bloodshed. In fact, I’d license everything about guns, from barrels to buckshot. But no politician’s pushing that yet.

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“Licensing and registration are almost the holy grail of gun control,” says Luis Tolley, western director of Handgun Control. “Politically, it hasn’t seemed feasible until recently.”

It’s still not politically feasible in the Republican-controlled Congress, but U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has decided to charge ahead anyway. The California Democrat will propose a registration-licensing bill next month that she admits has no chance of passing. But she hopes it will become part of the national political debate.

Vice President Al Gore and Bill Bradley, rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, both support licensing of handgun buyers. Bradley also favors handgun registration. Texas Gov. George Bush, the GOP front-runner, basically opposes gun control, a stand that could hurt him in California.

A recent survey by the Times Poll found that 61% of Californians believe that gun control laws should be tougher. Only 5% thought they were too tough.

In Sacramento, Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) plans to introduce a registration-licensing bill next year. Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda) intends to propose that handgun owners be required to obtain a license and perhaps also liability insurance.

“If you’re driving a car, you’re supposed to have insurance,” he reasons. “The premise is these are inherently dangerous machines. . . .

“We’re damn silly if we don’t regulate guns better. It’s a much more reasonable alternative than arming 5-year-olds at day-care centers so they can shoot back.”

Feinstein observes: “You can say, ‘Automobiles don’t kill people, drivers kill.’ So we license drivers and register their cars. A gun certainly can do as much damage as a car.”

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Last week, there was a tonal shift in gun rhetoric as the Assembly passed a bill banning the manufacture and sale of junk handguns. No Republican voted for the bill, but neither did any bellow on about the 2nd Amendment.

Conversely, some liberals confessed their true objectives. Declared Assemblyman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica): “I’m with my police chief in L.A. who actually almost said, ‘Why don’t we just collect all the damn things and melt them down?’ ”

Chief Bernand C. Parks did advocate destroying all assault guns and so-called Saturday night specials.

Assembly Democratic Floor Leader Kevin Shelley of San Francisco joined Kuehl: “I, too, would like to see guns banned. . . . I can even vote that way and still win reelection.” But the vast majority of lawmakers cannot, he added. “So we vote on measures now that we can. And then we move society along.”

The recent Times poll found that 58% of Californians would object to banning all handguns.

But that’s now. A few more years of schoolyard massacres in the Republican suburbs--of “law-abiding” husbands gunning down their wives and kids--and the public may well be ready for some confiscation and melting.