Plan to Ban Cheap Handguns Revived

Los Angeles County officials proposed a new law Wednesday to ban the sale of the cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials in the nation’s most populous county.

Although the Board of Supervisors approved such a concept two years ago, the actual law did not go into effect because county officials awaited the outcome of a costly court battle over a similar ban in West Hollywood.

That case essentially ended in December, when the state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the gun lobby. So Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Wednesday that at the Feb. 2 board meeting he will introduce a ban, to be effective in the county’s unincorporated areas, for board approval.

“Guns, especially Saturday night specials, have been the scourge of this community,” Yaroslavsky said at a news conference Wednesday. “Finally we’re trying to do something about it.”

Sheriff Lee Baca, whose office will decide whether new gun models will fall under the ban, added that “this is part of the arsenal of defense that the public really needs.”

Saturday night specials, also described as “junk guns,” are small, inexpensive handguns. Authorities say that they are involved in the vast majority of gun-related crimes in Los Angeles County.

More than 40 cities statewide, including Los Angeles, have banned the sale of the guns since West Hollywood passed its prohibition in 1995.

Although the majority of the board has backed such a ban, conservative Supervisor Mike Antonovich issued a news release opposing the motion. “If banning guns simply reduced crime, New York City and Washington would be the safest communities in the United States,” he said in the statement.

But Baca, a former member of the National Rifle Assn., said that banning Saturday night specials is long overdue.

“These weapons,” he said, “are tools of death.”