When will it stop......I just remembered, when they have all of our guns!
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Let voters decide if all gun owners need licenses
Scott Winokur
EXAMINER COLUMNIST Tuesday, November 16, 1999
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COMMENTS made on the Internet by the gun nuts out there are so visceral, so embedded in the cruder, crustier values of a bygone era, they rise to the level of entertainment.
We read that:
"Gun control means being able to put more than one shot in the same place!"
"Adolf Hitler advocated gun confiscation."
"Our gun control-oriented governor, Gray Davis, is a "commie pinko."
"Gun lovers have to "fight like lions"to fend off "power-hungry legislators."
"State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, as strong a proponent of gun control as there is in the nation, intends to "step"on "our constitutional rights ... big time."
I see why they're in a lather over Perata -- the man is dangerous to their obscene cause. Perata has been targeting gun owners since he served on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Earlier this year, he succeeded in pushing through a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons, a measure he'd carried for several legislative sessions. The new law, long opposed by the National Rifle Association, takes effect Jan. 1.
"NRA defeated Don Perata's AB/SB23 legislation 3 years in a row,"one of the gun nuts wailed. "It took the most anti-gun governor and legislature in California history to push it through."
But as the king says in Shakespeare's "King Lear":
The worst is not,
So long as we can say,
"This is the worst."
Now big bad Perata has something even more horrific in store for the pistol-packin' goofballs of California: A total licensing of handgun ownership, making the possession of a handgun no different, from a regulatory standpoint, than the use of a car.
This sounds entirely reasonable -- indeed, a logical and obvious step. Of course, the gun nuts are righteously indignant and absolutely aghast. So aghast, in fact, that they saw fit to do no more than quote what they viewed as particularly foul-smelling passages from a letter Perata sent to other legislators Sept. 29 inviting them to co-author a licensing bill.
The measure "would require demonstrated knowledge and proficiency as a prerequisite to purchasing a handgun."
It would require "accountability as a condition of ownership."
It would require "proficiency in safe storage and use of a weapon, knowledge of law governing possession and use of guns, and an extensive background check ... "
This is all very, very bad, the triggerheads say.
Perata's spokesman, Mark Capitolo, told me that while the senator already has nearly a dozen co-authors of his new bill (it doesn't have a number yet), its likelihood of enactment soon doesn't look good.
The governor has said he wants authorities to digest the recent spate of related bills already enacted before signing any new gun-control bills into law.
"Don understands that, but he was disappointed because it sent a message to the Legislature that nothing more significant on gun control would be signed into law this session,"Capitolo said.
"So now we've turned to this idea of possibly backing an initiative on the November 2000 ballot. It would take a coalition of people and about 400,000 to 500,000 signatures."
Perata said he may chose to pursue the initiative option rather than even attempt to get another law -- a big one -- enacted.
"There's a constituency out there that is ahead of the Legislature on this issue and we may want to tap into it,"the senator said. "It's the League of Women voters, the PTA, the clergy, the medical community."
But half a million valid signatures requires about one million in all to be gathered, allowing for disqualifications, and Perata fears the task of getting that done by the May 1 deadline may be too great.
A decision will be made in the next few weeks about which route to take, he said.
Perata doesn't oppose the purported right to bear arms, by the way. In fact, he's had a concealed weapons permit from Alameda County for a number of years.
"It basically arose from the number and severity of the death threats he was getting as a result of carrying gun-control legislation,"Capitolo said.
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©1999 San Francisco Examiner
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Let voters decide if all gun owners need licenses
Scott Winokur
EXAMINER COLUMNIST Tuesday, November 16, 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTS made on the Internet by the gun nuts out there are so visceral, so embedded in the cruder, crustier values of a bygone era, they rise to the level of entertainment.
We read that:
"Gun control means being able to put more than one shot in the same place!"
"Adolf Hitler advocated gun confiscation."
"Our gun control-oriented governor, Gray Davis, is a "commie pinko."
"Gun lovers have to "fight like lions"to fend off "power-hungry legislators."
"State Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, as strong a proponent of gun control as there is in the nation, intends to "step"on "our constitutional rights ... big time."
I see why they're in a lather over Perata -- the man is dangerous to their obscene cause. Perata has been targeting gun owners since he served on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
Earlier this year, he succeeded in pushing through a ban on the manufacture and sale of assault weapons, a measure he'd carried for several legislative sessions. The new law, long opposed by the National Rifle Association, takes effect Jan. 1.
"NRA defeated Don Perata's AB/SB23 legislation 3 years in a row,"one of the gun nuts wailed. "It took the most anti-gun governor and legislature in California history to push it through."
But as the king says in Shakespeare's "King Lear":
The worst is not,
So long as we can say,
"This is the worst."
Now big bad Perata has something even more horrific in store for the pistol-packin' goofballs of California: A total licensing of handgun ownership, making the possession of a handgun no different, from a regulatory standpoint, than the use of a car.
This sounds entirely reasonable -- indeed, a logical and obvious step. Of course, the gun nuts are righteously indignant and absolutely aghast. So aghast, in fact, that they saw fit to do no more than quote what they viewed as particularly foul-smelling passages from a letter Perata sent to other legislators Sept. 29 inviting them to co-author a licensing bill.
The measure "would require demonstrated knowledge and proficiency as a prerequisite to purchasing a handgun."
It would require "accountability as a condition of ownership."
It would require "proficiency in safe storage and use of a weapon, knowledge of law governing possession and use of guns, and an extensive background check ... "
This is all very, very bad, the triggerheads say.
Perata's spokesman, Mark Capitolo, told me that while the senator already has nearly a dozen co-authors of his new bill (it doesn't have a number yet), its likelihood of enactment soon doesn't look good.
The governor has said he wants authorities to digest the recent spate of related bills already enacted before signing any new gun-control bills into law.
"Don understands that, but he was disappointed because it sent a message to the Legislature that nothing more significant on gun control would be signed into law this session,"Capitolo said.
"So now we've turned to this idea of possibly backing an initiative on the November 2000 ballot. It would take a coalition of people and about 400,000 to 500,000 signatures."
Perata said he may chose to pursue the initiative option rather than even attempt to get another law -- a big one -- enacted.
"There's a constituency out there that is ahead of the Legislature on this issue and we may want to tap into it,"the senator said. "It's the League of Women voters, the PTA, the clergy, the medical community."
But half a million valid signatures requires about one million in all to be gathered, allowing for disqualifications, and Perata fears the task of getting that done by the May 1 deadline may be too great.
A decision will be made in the next few weeks about which route to take, he said.
Perata doesn't oppose the purported right to bear arms, by the way. In fact, he's had a concealed weapons permit from Alameda County for a number of years.
"It basically arose from the number and severity of the death threats he was getting as a result of carrying gun-control legislation,"Capitolo said.
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