Senate OKs Bill Banning More Firearms

A controversial bill to put new teeth in California’s anti-assault gun law by expanding it to include hundreds of thousands more firearms narrowly passed the state Senate on Tuesday.

The bill, a nearly identical version of which Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed last year, now goes to the Assembly, where it is expected to meet a friendly reception.

Circumstances are far different from a year ago, said Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), author of the bill, which passed the Senate 22 to 13.

“We have a governor who has said he will sign it. We have an attorney general who said he will enforce it,” Perata told the Senate.

Approval of the bill (SB 23) occurred as the Senate and Assembly opened a drive to approve several hundred bills by a Friday deadline for sending legislation to the other house.

Citing a national epidemic of campus shootings by young gunmen, including the fatal rampage in Littleton, Colo., six weeks ago, Perata said his bill was designed to “save suburban teenagers from their peers.”

He reasoned that as “firearms designed for mortal combat” are eliminated from California, “just by attrition, we’ll see less firepower” and more lives spared.

The bill would strengthen the state’s 10-year-old assault gun control law by adding weapons with characteristics typically associated with military firearms.

If, for example, a semiautomatic rifle included such features as a barrel threaded to accommodate a silencer or flash suppressor, a protruding pistol grip, folding stock or a second handgrip, it would be illegal.

Under current law, enacted in 1989 after the slaughter of five children at a Stockton school by a gunman firing an AK-47 rifle, about 75 guns are specifically outlawed by manufacturer or model.

The ban also outlaws copycat guns, a provision that gun control advocates claim never was adequately enforced by former Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. Additionally, one state appellate court has warned that the copycat ban is constitutionally suspect.

Last year, Wilson vetoed a virtually identical Perata bill. At the time, Davis, then campaigning for governor, said he would have signed it.

The new bill, supported by gun control advocates and opposed by the National Rifle Assn. and California Rifle and Pistol Assn., touched off only muted debate among opponents who foresaw the outcome.

One opponent, Sen. Maurice Johannessen (R-Redding), scoffed at Perata’s assertion that the bill would save teenagers from themselves. “You cannot really believe that is going to stop the problem we have now with teenagers and gangs,” Johannessen said.

Another opponent, Sen. John Lewis (R-Orange), asked Perata how many firearms would be outlawed under his new definition of an assault gun.

“I have no idea,” Perata said. But, he said, Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, who last year campaigned against assault guns, estimates that “there may be a couple of hundred thousand in California.”

The Assembly also caught a dose of gun control fever. On a 44-18 vote, the lower chamber approved a bill (AB 295) by Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) to require gun show promoters to be licensed by the attorney general.

Promoters would be required to spell out a security plan for their shows and designate a police officer to oversee the plan.

Earlier in the day, the Assembly approved 52 to 8 a bill (AB 505) by Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles) aimed at setting safety standards for handguns made or imported into California after Jan. 1. Handgun Control Inc. criticized the plan as an attempt to block a tougher Senate bill.

In other actions:

* Leaf blowers: The Assembly approved 48 to 17 a bill to prohibit cities from totally banning leaf blowers but still allowing them to regulate the noisy machines. The bill (AB 1609) by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) would authorize cities to prohibit the use of leaf blowers during the night and early morning hours.

* Arbitration: The Senate, without debate, approved SB 402 by John Burton (D-San Francisco), which would submit local police and firefighter contracts to binding arbitration in cases in which an impasse was reached. Burton said it would impose no mandates on local governing boards, which could “opt out” of binding arbitration by adopting an ordinance and submitting it to voters for approval. The vote was 21 to 11.

* Taxes: Voting 68-7, the Assembly passed legislation to restore a sales tax exemption for newspapers that was abolished in 1991 as part of a state budget compromise. Sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., the bill (AB 1077) by Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) would result in an estimated annual revenue loss to the state of $42.6 million.