Davis Urges Timeout on New Gun Bills

Calling for a moratorium on new gun control bills for at least a year, Gov. Gray Davis on Thursday asked lawmakers to hold their fire on any more legislation until the public and law enforcement agencies adjust to the heavy load of weapons laws already approved.

After a session that produced the most sweeping firearms legislation in a decade--keeping California in the vanguard of the national gun control movement--Davis signaled that the Legislature should step back. State and local law enforcement officials “must have time to absorb and enforce the major revisions enacted into law this year,” he said.

“Accordingly,” Davis wrote, explaining why he vetoed three relatively inconsequential gun bills Thursday, “I urge the Legislature to withhold passage of any additional significant firearms-related legislation during the balance of this [1999-2000] session until the impact of the laws recently enacted can be measured and analyzed.”

The governor issued his extraordinary appeal on the same day a legislative hearing was being set for Dec. 2 on one of the most controversial gun issues of all: licensing of handgun owners in California. His action could have implications for next year’s presidential campaign in the state, especially if he is able to avoid a divisive debate over the volatile issue of licensing.

The National Rifle Assn. and other gun-owner lobbies opposed many of the bills this year and have been girding for a battle over licensing next year.

By vetoing the three smaller gun bills, Davis was also sending a message to gun owners that he is not an extremist on gun control.

In identical messages attached to the three bills, Davis noted that in the past few weeks he had signed five substantial gun control bills, including a strengthening of the state’s law against assault weapons and a prohibition against unsafe handguns called Saturday night specials.

“Taken together, this legislation provides California with the toughest gun control laws in the nation--much stronger than federal law,” the Democratic governor said, asserting that he had kept his promise as a candidate for governor to make California safer from guns.

His statement drew mixed reaction from legislative leaders, the National Rifle Assn., county prosecutors and a rank-and-file peace officer organization.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) voiced support for not overloading law enforcement, but indicated that gun control will remain a priority for lawmakers next year.

Villaraigosa said he intends to work with Davis on the issue, but “we’re not finished looking at gun legislation,” including the licensing issue. “We intend to continue to be a bellwether state on the issue of gun control,” he said.

“I don’t consider it any big deal,” Burton said of Davis’ statement. “If there is a bill that has merit, it will move through the legislative process. I don’t think the governor should tell us what to pass and we should not tell him what to sign.”

Grover Trask, district attorney of Riverside County and president of the California District Attorneys Assn., and Steve Craig, president of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, a labor organization, applauded Davis.

“You come to a point where you get saturated with so many new laws that it almost has a negative impact,” Trask said, adding that Davis’ proposed moratorium on gun laws allows “us to be able to take some time to handle the changes that are coming forward.”

“I think it is an excellent stance now to not overload the system,” said Craig.

But Steve Helsley, California lobbyist for the National Rifle Assn., said he believes the governor’s declaration may be a “shot over the bow” on legislation next year that would require prospective handgun owners to be licensed by the state Department of Justice.

Similar bills have been proposed, and killed, in the past. But gun control advocates claim that in the wake of several highly publicized mass shootings in the past year, the time is right for California to pass such a requirement.

The December hearing, set by the Assembly Public Safety Committee chaired by Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), will be held in Glendale.

“At the very time the governor is saying he doesn’t want any more bills, the gun control zealots in the Legislature are raising the bar,” said Helsley.

He said the NRA was “very glad” that Davis had taken such an action, but said the governor may have avoided “some of the pain” in implementing the complexities and contradictions of some of the new laws if he had agreed to discuss the bills with the NRA as they moved toward his desk.

Helsley said the attitude of the governor’s aides on gun control was: “Move these bills out. No amendments. Thank you very much.”

Assemblyman Scott, whose son was killed in a gun accident, said he understands the governor’s appeal, but “I wouldn’t want it to be an absolute ban on any gun legislation in the next year. We may discover that . . . we may need to take some additional steps.”

Scott said he will not cancel the committee hearing.

The bills passed by the Legislature in 1999, in addition to the assault gun and unsafe pistols bills, included limiting purchases of handguns to one a month, mandating trigger locks on all firearms sold in California, and toughened regulation of gun shows.

But Helsley said the assault gun and unsafe handgun bills were so poorly drafted and rushed that police and prosecutors will have great difficulty implementing them.

The Measures That Were Vetoed

The gun-related bills Davis vetoed Thursday were:

* AB 1040 by Assemblyman Rod Wright (D-Los Angeles), which would have required gun owners seeking to renew a concealed weapons permit to complete a training class every four years, instead of every two years.

* SB 29 by Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon) would have made a series of complex but technical changes to the handgun sales registry administered by the attorney general.

* AB 1142 by Assemblywoman Nell Soto (D-Pomona) would have stiffened the penalties for failing to properly store a firearm accessible to a child under 18.

Davis did sign two firearms measures by Scott, including a bill (AB 491) that allows law enforcement authorities to bring misdemeanor or felony charges against someone who illegally conceals an unregistered firearm. Currently, the penalty is a misdemeanor.

A second Scott bill (AB 1587) makes clear that a person released from a “mental hold” can seek a hearing and be exempted from a five-year ban on possessing a gun.

*

Times staff writer Amy Pyle contributed to this report.