VOICES / A Forum for Community Issues : Essay : Gun Control Isn’t a Consumer Act

Just when I suspect that the folks in Sacramento may have gone totally bonkers, they pass a law and confirm it--the most recent example being when our state legislators decided to get rid of cheap, unsafe handguns. For the first time, handguns made in, sold in or imported into the state would have to meet certain consumer safety standards to ensure that they don’t misfire.

Do these politicians believe that now they can say to the people of the state that they fulfilled their promise to get rid of cheap and unsafe handguns? “Those so-called Saturday night specials are the weapons of choice on the streets of Los Angeles,” said Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles).

So now we have Sacramento’s answer to the handgun problem: Pass a law to make them more reliable. Brilliant! Why should some mugger have to put up with shoddy workmanship and poor reliability when it comes to handguns? When a guy buys a cheap handgun, he should be able to shoot at someone without worrying about it misfiring. I suppose I should be grateful knowing that now, when some street mugger points a cheap handgun at me, I can count on it going off.

The legislators are going about this cheap handgun business all wrong. Whose consumer safety are we talking about here, anyway: The shooter or the shootee? Instead of making handguns meet safety standards to ensure that they don’t misfire, why don’t they do the opposite? How often do you think a mugger or gangbanger would pull the trigger if he knew that, every now and then, not only would the gun misfire, but it would explode like a Fourth of July firecracker in his hand? Why don’t we pass a law requiring Saturday night specials to randomly blow up when they’re fired?