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From the SF Chronicle:
THE LINE OF FIRE
Some citizens fear for safety if courts uphold S.F.'s voter-approved ban on handguns
- Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 5, 2005
For a long time, Margaret Hurst lived in fear.
Gangs control turf just a few blocks from her Mission District apartment in San Francisco, and she's sure a neighbor across the street deals drugs. Her building was broken into four times in one year. She saw teenagers on her street display a gun. And while she was stopped at a red light one day, a man tried to punch in her car window in a case of road rage.
So she bought a handgun. Now Hurst is no longer scared.
"I'll tell you one thing. If I'm going down, I'm taking them with me," said 49-year-old Hurst, who is about as un-Charlton Heston as any woman with a British accent, braided bun and long flowing skirt could be.
After a heated campaign brought the national debate over gun control to San Francisco, the city's famously liberal voters passed a law last month banning the sale, manufacture and distribution of firearms and ammunition within city limits. The measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, also makes it illegal for residents to possess handguns.
And as that date approaches, handgun owners like Hurst are becoming increasingly fearful of the consequences.
"We're exactly the kind of people that should have weapons. We're vulnerable," Hurst said during a recent conversation in her cozy apartment, where she lives with her partner and their two cats. "The guns are not going away unless they absolutely have to."
When 58 percent of the city's voters approved the handgun ban, San Francisco joined only two other cities in the nation with similar laws, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The day after the election, the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, saying it oversteps local government authority and intrudes into an area regulated by the state. That battle continues in court.
Backers of the law known as Proposition H include San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly, who placed the measure on the ballot with three other supervisors.
At a time when San Francisco is experiencing a wave of homicides, backers concede that the ban will not solve the problem of violence, but say the law will at least help curb violence.
"There are other ways that people can defend themselves in their homes," said Bill Barnes, a spokesman for the Prop. H campaign. "Let's say someone breaks into this woman's house and steals her gun and gets in a gunfight. The proliferation of handguns has made the city less safe."
In 1999, the last year for which data are available, 213 people in the city were victims of handgun incidents, according to a 2002 San Francisco Department of Public Health report. Of all firearms used to cause injury or death that year, 67 percent were handguns.
But it's about more than statistics to Hurst, who wanted to be identified by her maiden name rather than her last name, out of concern she might be singled out by criminals.
Growing up in a London suburb, she was never exposed to guns. In fact, she had never fired a gun in her life before the day six years ago when she borrowed a friend's rifle, took a trip to the shooting range and learned she's actually a great shot.
Not long after that, she and her partner, B.C., went to a gun show and spent $700 on matching 9mm handguns. Two years ago, B.C, who also did not want her last name used, bought Hurst a Winchester rifle as a Christmas gift.
Now the weapons are hidden in different rooms of their apartment after careful thought about the various scenarios in which the women may need to use them.
"I'm not going to start anything, but if somebody else starts something, I'm going to fight for my life," Hurst said. "And not only that, I'm going to try to do enough harm to my attacker that they're not going to go after somebody else who they think might be an easy target."
Both belong to the NRA, not because they agree with what they call the "right-wing lunatics" running the organization, but mostly because they like the mailers and Second Amendment literature the group offers.
They pride themselves on being responsible gun owners -- they take regular trips to the range to practice and always keep the bullets separate from the guns. It's just, they say, that they have too many friends who have been raped and abused to allow themselves to fall victim to anyone.
"Not only am I female, it is real obvious, unless you're blind, that I'm gay. I have been harassed more often than I care to think about," said B.C., a 43-year-old personal trainer who has won trophies in bodybuilding competitions. "If all of a sudden it becomes apparent that I'm not going to be able to have a gun at home and you decide to follow me all the way home, well, I'm not looking forward to that at all."
It is unknown exactly how many handguns exist in San Francisco, because the state does not require owners to have a license or permit for their handguns, and many weapons are bought and sold illegally.
From 2000 to 2004, there were 4,235 handguns sold legally in San Francisco County, according to the California attorney general's office.
Those who favor banning handguns in the city say that too many innocent people are shot in gun accidents and that handguns are often used in suicides.
They say criminals often get guns by robbing law-abiding gun owners.
Hurst denounces all those arguments, saying that there are simply too many guns out there to ban them all and that having a weapon levels the playing field against an attacker, who is likely to be armed.
"Assuming I'd be able to make a 911 call in the first place, you're looking at six or seven minutes realistically before police can get here," Hurst said. "You can get killed many times over in that length of time."
"Or raped and maimed and then killed," B.C. added.
If the lawsuit against the ban fails, handgun owners in the city may surrender their weapons to the police by April 1 without penalty; the law doesn't apply to rifles and shotguns.
The couple say they'll abide by the law and will ask a friend in another city to watch over their handguns.
"I will let go of my handgun," Hurst said, "and buy another rifle."
E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at cvega@sfchronicle.com.
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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/05/MNG30G33SM1.DTL
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©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
THE LINE OF FIRE
Some citizens fear for safety if courts uphold S.F.'s voter-approved ban on handguns
- Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 5, 2005
For a long time, Margaret Hurst lived in fear.
Gangs control turf just a few blocks from her Mission District apartment in San Francisco, and she's sure a neighbor across the street deals drugs. Her building was broken into four times in one year. She saw teenagers on her street display a gun. And while she was stopped at a red light one day, a man tried to punch in her car window in a case of road rage.
So she bought a handgun. Now Hurst is no longer scared.
"I'll tell you one thing. If I'm going down, I'm taking them with me," said 49-year-old Hurst, who is about as un-Charlton Heston as any woman with a British accent, braided bun and long flowing skirt could be.
After a heated campaign brought the national debate over gun control to San Francisco, the city's famously liberal voters passed a law last month banning the sale, manufacture and distribution of firearms and ammunition within city limits. The measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, also makes it illegal for residents to possess handguns.
And as that date approaches, handgun owners like Hurst are becoming increasingly fearful of the consequences.
"We're exactly the kind of people that should have weapons. We're vulnerable," Hurst said during a recent conversation in her cozy apartment, where she lives with her partner and their two cats. "The guns are not going away unless they absolutely have to."
When 58 percent of the city's voters approved the handgun ban, San Francisco joined only two other cities in the nation with similar laws, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The day after the election, the National Rifle Association and other gun advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the ban, saying it oversteps local government authority and intrudes into an area regulated by the state. That battle continues in court.
Backers of the law known as Proposition H include San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly, who placed the measure on the ballot with three other supervisors.
At a time when San Francisco is experiencing a wave of homicides, backers concede that the ban will not solve the problem of violence, but say the law will at least help curb violence.
"There are other ways that people can defend themselves in their homes," said Bill Barnes, a spokesman for the Prop. H campaign. "Let's say someone breaks into this woman's house and steals her gun and gets in a gunfight. The proliferation of handguns has made the city less safe."
In 1999, the last year for which data are available, 213 people in the city were victims of handgun incidents, according to a 2002 San Francisco Department of Public Health report. Of all firearms used to cause injury or death that year, 67 percent were handguns.
But it's about more than statistics to Hurst, who wanted to be identified by her maiden name rather than her last name, out of concern she might be singled out by criminals.
Growing up in a London suburb, she was never exposed to guns. In fact, she had never fired a gun in her life before the day six years ago when she borrowed a friend's rifle, took a trip to the shooting range and learned she's actually a great shot.
Not long after that, she and her partner, B.C., went to a gun show and spent $700 on matching 9mm handguns. Two years ago, B.C, who also did not want her last name used, bought Hurst a Winchester rifle as a Christmas gift.
Now the weapons are hidden in different rooms of their apartment after careful thought about the various scenarios in which the women may need to use them.
"I'm not going to start anything, but if somebody else starts something, I'm going to fight for my life," Hurst said. "And not only that, I'm going to try to do enough harm to my attacker that they're not going to go after somebody else who they think might be an easy target."
Both belong to the NRA, not because they agree with what they call the "right-wing lunatics" running the organization, but mostly because they like the mailers and Second Amendment literature the group offers.
They pride themselves on being responsible gun owners -- they take regular trips to the range to practice and always keep the bullets separate from the guns. It's just, they say, that they have too many friends who have been raped and abused to allow themselves to fall victim to anyone.
"Not only am I female, it is real obvious, unless you're blind, that I'm gay. I have been harassed more often than I care to think about," said B.C., a 43-year-old personal trainer who has won trophies in bodybuilding competitions. "If all of a sudden it becomes apparent that I'm not going to be able to have a gun at home and you decide to follow me all the way home, well, I'm not looking forward to that at all."
It is unknown exactly how many handguns exist in San Francisco, because the state does not require owners to have a license or permit for their handguns, and many weapons are bought and sold illegally.
From 2000 to 2004, there were 4,235 handguns sold legally in San Francisco County, according to the California attorney general's office.
Those who favor banning handguns in the city say that too many innocent people are shot in gun accidents and that handguns are often used in suicides.
They say criminals often get guns by robbing law-abiding gun owners.
Hurst denounces all those arguments, saying that there are simply too many guns out there to ban them all and that having a weapon levels the playing field against an attacker, who is likely to be armed.
"Assuming I'd be able to make a 911 call in the first place, you're looking at six or seven minutes realistically before police can get here," Hurst said. "You can get killed many times over in that length of time."
"Or raped and maimed and then killed," B.C. added.
If the lawsuit against the ban fails, handgun owners in the city may surrender their weapons to the police by April 1 without penalty; the law doesn't apply to rifles and shotguns.
The couple say they'll abide by the law and will ask a friend in another city to watch over their handguns.
"I will let go of my handgun," Hurst said, "and buy another rifle."
E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at cvega@sfchronicle.com.
Page A - 1
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/05/MNG30G33SM1.DTL
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©2005 San Francisco Chronicle