New mood on gun laws surfaces in the U.S.

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 14

New mood on gun laws surfaces in the U.S.

By

JOHN HUTCHINSON,

in California

The Mayor of San Francisco, who succeeded to her office when her predecessor was assassinated by a revolver-wield-ing former policeman, has pushed into law a ban on the sale and possession of handguns. She has pulled the trigger on a new skirmish in the nationwide controversy over firearms. The action here is the first by a large American city. It will be challenged immediately in the courts. As soon as the ordinance was adopted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (equivalent to councillors) and signed by Mayor Dianne Feinstein, the district attorney announced that he would not prosecute violators until there is a court ruling that the measure is consitiitional. Critics call the law unenforcable in that gun owners will not volunteer to give up their weapons, and they insist that only the state has the authority set out in the new ordinance.

The. law, planned to become effective at the end of July,, will give private owners of handguns 90 days in which to surrender • weapons to the police, deposit them officially at a shooting range, or sell them outside the city. Police, military and security personnel

and store owners are exempt. Violation is a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail or a $5OO fine.

' Nobody knows how many handguns are in San Francisco, although a police study in 1968 guessed that there were 700,000 — one for every man, woman and child. State government records show legal sales by California gun dealers of 371.160 handguns in 1981. Nearly 7000 were sold last year in San Francisco. California law does not require that a handgun even be registered by its owner, although licensed gun dealers register and report their sales. The law does require a licence to carry a concealed weapon. Mayor Feinstein was president of the Board of Supervisors when a former policeman, who was also a former supervisor, killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in their offices in the city hall. She became mayor automatically, but has since been elected and } re-elected. She bought a handgun in 1976. after her home was bombed and someone shot out several windows of her house. She said she will deliver that gun under the new law. The chief of police, a warm

supporter of the. Mayor’s opposition to private handguns, takes a realistic view of the enforcement problems of the measure. He says the police will not seek out violators, but that they will arrest and charge those whose infractions are apparent. A former San Francisco police chief, now a supervisor, is another of the Mayor's supporters on the issue, which the supervisors adopted by a vote of six to four. Frequent polls of the American public indicate the majority favour outlawing or strictly controlling handguns, but legislators in most of the country have knuckled under to the gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association. When a small town in Illinois voted a full ban on sale and possession of guns, two small towns in Georgia and Oregon passed ordinances requiring every household to have a handgun. The difficulty of enforcing any of these measures in isolation from state or national law is at least putting new emphasis on the issue, which gun opponents believe will favour their cause. The San Francisco measure has drawn bitter attacks from the gun lobby since Mrs Feinstein announced her intention last February.