Gun Control--Because Accidents Happen

I have great hope that in my lifetime we can tell our children, “I remember when you didn’t even need a license to own a gun.”

That maybe someday gun licenses will become so Americana--like fishing or driver’s licenses--we’ll have a hard time remembering when it wasn’t so.

Which makes it sad that AB 273, the gun license bill passed this week by the state Senate, has such a difficult road ahead. Its original sponsor, Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena), has decided to hold off and try to get it through next year.

Even if it made it back through the Assembly intact, Gov. Gray Davis’ staff had said he was not likely to sign it. Davis, generally a supporter of tighter gun control, has said he wants to give other new gun laws time to take hold first.

Someone needs to convince the governor it would be politically incorrect for him not to sign a gun license bill.

Great movements take time, however, and we who believe in stronger gun laws can take heart. After all, it wasn’t so long ago when such a bill couldn’t even make it to the floor of the state Senate or Assembly, let alone get an “aye” vote from someone from Orange County.

That’s right. An Orange County senator voted yes to gun control. Who woulda thunk it?

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), who supported AB 273, said he’s in favor of gun legislation that’s “reasonable” and “pragmatic.”

We can split hairs over whether this is a true licensing law, but essentially, here’s what AB 273 would do: It would prohibit you from buying a handgun until you have taken a certified training course in how to handle and store the weapon. You’d then have to pass a test by the state Department of Justice. That, in effect, becomes your license, the same way as if you passed your test at the DMV.

The heart of this bill, as Dunn sees it, is more about safety than licensing.

“You can compare it to someone in the military not being assigned a weapon until he or she has taken a safety course in how to handle one,” Dunn said. “I don’t see that as unreasonable. It might well cut down on accidental gun deaths.”

The bill was strongly urged by the Million Mom March, the gun control group that got national attention with its Mother’s Day March on Washington. It’s become the most dominant force--at least the most publicized--in gun control lobbying. For example, it was just a few months back that local gun control advocates Mary Leigh and Charles Blek helped found the Bell Campaign, a lobbying group made up of victims of gun crimes. The Bell Campaign has since merged with the Million Mom March. Now Mary Leigh Blek is the Million Mom March national president.

‘A Good Partial Step’

Its ultimate goal is national gun registration. But AB 273, Mary Leigh Blek said, “is a good partial step.” To Blek, the bill would reduce gun-related crime as well as accidental gun deaths, because it would reduce the number of people eligible to purchase a gun.

The Bleks lost a son, shot to death in 1994 on a visit to New York by a robber carrying a cheap handgun known as a Saturday night special. While it spurred them to join this movement, they also recognize the horror of accidental gun deaths. Assemblyman Scott had lost a son in 1993, accidentally shot to death at a party.

“Rest assured,” Scott said Wednesday, “I will pursue this measure again next year or however long it takes.”

Included in the Scott bill, Blek points out, were provisions that require the safety course to include warnings about how to store a gun to reduce the risk that others might have access to it.

That led me to think back to last year, when four college students were studying for exams at the home of one of them in Arcadia. One student found a gun kept permanently under a couch and began waving it around, assuming it was unloaded. It wasn’t, and the young woman student hosting this group was shot in the head. Maybe if the owners had been required to take this safety course first, it might have occurred to them that hiding a gun under the couch wasn’t the brainiest idea.

Whether AB 273 ever makes it past the governor, Blek is excited that at least legislators are taking these issues more seriously.

“I can remember testifying in Sacramento against Saturday night specials. We couldn’t even get our bill out of committee,” Blek said.

Such a bill did eventually become California law, and it’s one of several gun laws the governor says needs time to take firm hold before he supports any new gun control laws.

But at least the tide is turning. And Joe Dunn scored some nice points for Orange County. His three Republican colleagues, as expected, voted as a bloc against AB 273. It’s nice to see Dunn willing to stand alone among them.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers can reach Hicks by calling (714) 966-7789 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.