Key Win Against Assault Guns

After a 10-year struggle, California has an enforceable ban on assault weapons. The Legislature Monday gave final passage to SB 23, by Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), and Gov. Gray Davis says he will sign the bill into law, along with a previously passed measure to limit gun sales to one per month for each customer. These bills are major victories against gun violence.

The Legislature banned specific makes and models of assault weapons after a 1989 Stockton schoolyard shooting that killed five students. But gun manufacturers got around the law by altering some features of the weapons and changing the names.

Perata sought to fix the copycat-weapons problem last year by creating a generic description of assault weapons of certain sizes with specific features and by banning high-capacity magazines. The bill passed but was, like other gun control legislation, vetoed by then Gov. Pete Wilson.

During his 1998 gubernatorial campaign, Davis promised to sign an assault weapons bill. With that green light from Davis, Perata was able to make the bill even tougher, limiting magazine capacity to 10 cartridges, half the number that Wilson rejected. It’s too bad California had to wait a year, but the result is a stronger, better state law, one recognized as the toughest in the country--and that includes federal statutes.

Most Democrats supported the bill while most Republicans opposed it, invoking the flimsy line of the National Rifle Assn. about abridging citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights. In debate, that argument was demolished by the comment of a Republican who later voted for the bill, Assemblyman Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria. “They are weapons of war,” he said. “They shouldn’t be on the streets.”

Davis, despite his support for the two bills before him, has declined to endorse several other firearms bills moving through the Legislature, including a ban on cheap handguns. He should reconsider that stand with no fear of political backlash. Californians elected a legislative majority that favors tougher gun laws. The people want safe streets.

These laws will not keep law-abiding citizens from owning guns to defend themselves or to hunt game. But they will help stem the tide of guns that have no purpose other than to maim or kill humans.