Lockyer Stays Out of Gun Control Fight

Dealing a potential setback to proponents of expanded gun control, state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said Wednesday that he will remain neutral in the developing fight to license handgun owners and register their firearms.

Lockyer, a Democrat and a gun control advocate who campaigned for office against military-style assault weapons, stopped short of endorsing Gov. Gray Davis’ demand for an election-year moratorium on new gun controls.

As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Lockyer said he will provide “expertise” on gun issues to the Legislature, but he will not support or oppose gun control bills this session.

“Our role is to try and enforce the laws that we adopted [last year]. That’s plenty of work. That’s how I’m concentrating my efforts,” he said.

“The policy is written over there [at the Capitol]. We try to enforce the law here. I’m respecting that,” Lockyer told reporters at his high-rise headquarters in Sacramento.

In a burst of gun control energy, the Legislature last year passed and Davis signed six major gun measures, including tougher controls on assault weapons. Similar versions of some bills had been vetoed by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.

As a leader of the state Senate from 1994 until 1998, Lockyer was pivotal in the passage of gun control bills. As a candidate for attorney general two years ago, he made vigorous enforcement of laws controlling assault weapons a major campaign theme.

Last summer, Davis praised the Legislature’s gun control package as the nation’s strongest stand against gun violence, but in the fall abruptly called on the Legislature to send him no “significant” new gun control bills in 2000. He said law enforcement officials need time to implement the new statutes without additional laws being passed.

Despite the governor’s red light and implied threat to veto bills he does not like, several urban Democrats in the Legislature are seeking to extend their 1999 winning streak on guns.

One such legislator, Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), author of last year’s assault gun bill, said Wednesday that he still intends to introduce a bill requiring licensing and registration of handguns, but said it faces an uphill fight.

“Frankly, I think it would be very difficult to pass in an election year,” he said.

Meantime, Luis Tolley, western director of Handgun Control, who is pressing for a licensing and registration bill, said Lockyer had been “‘very helpful” in the early technical drafting of such proposals. But he avoided a direct answer on whether Lockyer’s neutral stance would handicap efforts at approving new gun controls.

“We understand both the attorney general and the governor are concerned about enacting a whole new set of gun laws while they are still implementing the current ones. We respect that,” Tolley said.

He said that although Lockyer’s support would be helpful now, “we believe we ultimately will win the support of both the governor and the attorney general. Perhaps it won’t be this year, but in the near future.”

Lockyer held the news conference to again rebut claims by the National Rifle Assn. and some gun dealers that regulations he has proposed to implement the toughened ban on assault guns may include many common semiautomatic hunting rifles.

Holding examples of both illegal assault weapons and legal hunting rifles, Lockyer charged that the NRA and dealers are trying to undercut the new law with false “propaganda and mindless blather.”