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http://www.dailybulletin.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=71820?anews2
Gun bill battle looms
Published Monday, August 14, 2000
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By L.C. Greene
Staff Writer
A law to establish a kind of driver's license for handgun buyers might emerge from legislative limbo next week with supporters and opponents ready to wage war.
Assembly Bill 273 would require gun purchasers to pass three tests: a written exam on gun laws and safety rules and two demonstration tests on gun operation and firearms safety. The safety license, required for buying a handgun after January 2002, would cost $25.
"It's like a license for an automobile," said the measure's author, Assemblyman Jack Scott, D-Pasadena. "It's a dangerous product and people ought to know how to handle it."
Six other states and most industrialized European nations require similar licensing, Scott said.
But critics argue AB 273 is just one more gun law that won't work.
"All you're doing is curtailing the activity of law-abiding citizens," said Sen. Richard Mountjoy, D-Arcadia, whose district includes San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, Diamond Bar and portions of Pomona. "Criminals don't care. They'll just break one more law."
Lobbying groups and activists have also geared up should the measure move out of committee toward possible passage.
"It's common-sense legislation," Anita DeLucio of the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention in San Francisco said. The bill "requires a basic understanding of how to handle a gun, how to load and unload - basic skills."
Current laws allow a person to buy a hand gun without ever having handled one, DeLucio said. "Gun injuries, most often caused by handguns, cost taxpayers millions of dollars in medical bills each year in California."
Opponents of AB 273 say it's the bill that will cost the public.
"The legislation is just a way to create a huge bureaucracy on the line of the DMV that will cost taxpayers tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars and turn police departments into licensing administrations," said Chuck Michel, a Los Angeles attorney and spokesman for the California Rifle and Pistol Association.
Setting up the licensing database would cost only $1 million, Scott countered. The $25 licensing fee would more than make up for the cost of the program in less than five years, he added.
AB 273 in a substantially different form passed the Assembly in June. Scott said he amended the bill when it reached the Senate to enhance its chances for passage.
The revised measure is now in the hands of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where a decision is expected by Aug. 22, Scott said.
Republicans had pushed for alternative gun-related legislation, Mountjoy said, but the majority Democrats refused to consider it. The GOP-proposed SB 1475 would appropriate $20 million for district attorneys in 10 specified counties - including San Bernardino and Los Angeles - to seek federal charges against people charged with using a gun in the commission of a crime.
Federal penalties are far tougher, Mountjoy noted.
"California law doesn't do anything to them," he said. "Why the Democrats rejected that in favor a passing a bunch of gun laws that do no good boggles my mind."
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It is far better to dare mighty things, though riddled with failure, than to live in the dull grey of mediocrity.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=71820?anews2
Gun bill battle looms
Published Monday, August 14, 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By L.C. Greene
Staff Writer
A law to establish a kind of driver's license for handgun buyers might emerge from legislative limbo next week with supporters and opponents ready to wage war.
Assembly Bill 273 would require gun purchasers to pass three tests: a written exam on gun laws and safety rules and two demonstration tests on gun operation and firearms safety. The safety license, required for buying a handgun after January 2002, would cost $25.
"It's like a license for an automobile," said the measure's author, Assemblyman Jack Scott, D-Pasadena. "It's a dangerous product and people ought to know how to handle it."
Six other states and most industrialized European nations require similar licensing, Scott said.
But critics argue AB 273 is just one more gun law that won't work.
"All you're doing is curtailing the activity of law-abiding citizens," said Sen. Richard Mountjoy, D-Arcadia, whose district includes San Dimas, La Verne, Claremont, Diamond Bar and portions of Pomona. "Criminals don't care. They'll just break one more law."
Lobbying groups and activists have also geared up should the measure move out of committee toward possible passage.
"It's common-sense legislation," Anita DeLucio of the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention in San Francisco said. The bill "requires a basic understanding of how to handle a gun, how to load and unload - basic skills."
Current laws allow a person to buy a hand gun without ever having handled one, DeLucio said. "Gun injuries, most often caused by handguns, cost taxpayers millions of dollars in medical bills each year in California."
Opponents of AB 273 say it's the bill that will cost the public.
"The legislation is just a way to create a huge bureaucracy on the line of the DMV that will cost taxpayers tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars and turn police departments into licensing administrations," said Chuck Michel, a Los Angeles attorney and spokesman for the California Rifle and Pistol Association.
Setting up the licensing database would cost only $1 million, Scott countered. The $25 licensing fee would more than make up for the cost of the program in less than five years, he added.
AB 273 in a substantially different form passed the Assembly in June. Scott said he amended the bill when it reached the Senate to enhance its chances for passage.
The revised measure is now in the hands of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where a decision is expected by Aug. 22, Scott said.
Republicans had pushed for alternative gun-related legislation, Mountjoy said, but the majority Democrats refused to consider it. The GOP-proposed SB 1475 would appropriate $20 million for district attorneys in 10 specified counties - including San Bernardino and Los Angeles - to seek federal charges against people charged with using a gun in the commission of a crime.
Federal penalties are far tougher, Mountjoy noted.
"California law doesn't do anything to them," he said. "Why the Democrats rejected that in favor a passing a bunch of gun laws that do no good boggles my mind."
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It is far better to dare mighty things, though riddled with failure, than to live in the dull grey of mediocrity.
Quacktalk, newsspeak.