Open season on gun bill

By Tim Hearden

August 4, 2000 Web posted at: 11:51 AM EDT (1551 GMT)

REDDING, California (Redding Record Searchlight) -- North state legislators and gun enthusiasts are up in arms over a proposed law requiring a license to purchase handguns and the registration of all handguns.

And Redding and Shasta County law enforcement officials said the bill, which would require the licenses to be obtained at police and sheriff's departments, would impose a tremendous burden on their agencies.

"Not really knowing what the details are, it would probably be immense," Redding Police Chief Bob Blankenship said of the bill's impact, "and we would try to get the state to do it because of lack of resources."

Assembly Bill 273 would require would-be handgun purchasers and those wishing to borrow a handgun to attend a certified safety course and pass a firearms safety demonstration test, a basic firearms demonstration test and a written test on California's handgun laws and safety rules.

Law enforcement agencies would then be required to obtain thumbprints and do a background check on the applicant before issuing the license.

Under current state law, most handgun buyers must take a simple written test and face a 10-day waiting period and background check, but no firearms demonstration is required.

The bill passed the Senate Public Safety Committee in June and will be considered this month by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"In California you need a license to drive, fish, hunt, give a manicure, own a dog or cat and, in some communities, even to ride a bike," said Assemblyman Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, the bill's principal author. "Surely it is reasonable to require a license to purchase or borrow a handgun."

Assemblyman Dick Dickerson and state Sen. Maurice Johannessen, both Redding Republicans, said they've received hundreds of calls from gun owners concerned about the bill. Most of the calls resulted from a National Rifle Association mailer urging members to contact their legislators, a Dickerson aide said.

"The person would have to . . . register all the handguns they own and notify police whenever they moved, just like a registered sex offender," said Steve Helsley, an NRA spokesman in Sacramento. "Now what a lot of our members really don't like, and what freedom-loving people shouldn't like, is the notion that because you own a handgun you should be treated the same way a child molester is."

Handgun Control Inc., a sponsor of the bill, counters that the legislation would close loopholes in the law that allow criminals to obtain guns, according to the Internet news service NewsMax.com.

Dickerson complained Wednesday that Scott introduced the bill as a non-controversial proposal to increase the penalties for those who commit violent crimes against students, then changed it after it passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly. The new version must be considered anew by lawmakers. Dickerson said he wouldn't support it.

Neither will Johannessen.

"This is really a dangerous bill," the senator said. "They keep comparing this to having to have a license to use a car. Well, the car itself was not guaranteed in the Constitution. Gun ownership is."

Shasta County Undersheriff Larry Schaller said the impact of such a bill on north state law enforcement and gun owners would be almost impossible to calculate, and noted that the California State Sheriffs Association and two other law enforcement organizations have taken stands against the bill.

He and Blankenship said the bill may have an uphill climb, particularly because Gov. Gray Davis has said he doesn't want to see any more gun restrictions until it's clear whether ones that are on the books are working.

"From that standpoint," Schaller said, "I don't expect it to go anywhere."

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