Gov. Wilson vetoes assault weapon, handgun safety bills

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday vetoed bills designed to bolster California's assault-weapons ban and to bar unsafe handguns, prompting gun-control advocates to accuse him of caving in to the gun lobby.

''If California suffers another assault-weapons massacre, Governor Wilson is going to be remembered for refusing to get the weapons off the street,'' said Luis Tolley, western director for Handgun Control Inc.

The Republican governor vetoed a bill by Assemblyman Don Perata, D-Alameda, that attempted to fix a portion of the assault weapons ban that an appeals court said was unconstitutional.

Wilson also struck down a measure by Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, that was designed to get rid of cheaply made handguns known as Saturday night specials or junk guns.

The governor charged that the assault weapons bill was a ''maze which would entrap the unwary, generate endless litigation and provide the author manifold opportunities for corrective legislation.''

He contended that the handgun bill ''threatens to unreasonably limit the right of law-abiding citizens to obtain previously lawful firearms.''

Tolley and Polanco accused Wilson of caving in to pressure from the gun lobby.

''Gun violence is the No. 1 killer of California's children,'' Polanco said. ''Yet this governor couldn't muster enough courage to sign a bill that would require that guns actually work and don't fire when dropped.''

California's assault weapons law was adopted in 1989 after a gunman armed with an assault rifle killed five students at a Stockton elementary school.

It generally prohibits the sale, manufacture, distribution, importation, and, in most instances, possession of a more than 50 military-style rifles, pistols and shotguns.

The law also gave the attorney general the power to go to court to add so-called copycat weapons to that list.

But earlier this year a state appeals court struck down that section of the law and expressed reservations about the entire statute's constitutionality.

Perata's bill attempted to deal with the copycat problem by adding a generic definition of weapons covered by the ban based on the guns' characteristics.

It also would have prohibited the manufacture and sale of gun magazines that carry more than 19 rounds.

The Polanco bill would have required all handguns manufactured, imported or sold in California after 2000 to meet firing and other safety tests, such as being dropped without firing.

Perata introduced his bill in 1997 and struggled for nearly two years to get it through the Legislature. It failed by a single vote in the Assembly before finally passing late last month.

He also had long negotiations with Wilson's office and took a number of amendments designed to win the governor's signature.

But in a two-page veto message, Wilson suggested that the magazine limit in the bill was too high and implied that the bill had undergone too many changes.

''As a result, after 15 amendments, (it) may be more susceptible to constitutional attack than the law it seeks to replace,'' he said.

Perata said he was not surprised by the veto but ''baffled'' by Wilson's objections.

''I was really stunned by the suggestion that somehow the magazine capacity was the reason he had to veto it,'' Perata said. ''For the last two months I told everybody ... that we were one bullet apart: He wants 20 and I want 19. Never was he on the side that wanted fewer.''

In related action, Wilson also vetoed a bill by Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, that would require gun dealers to offer to sell trigger locks to gun buyers.

Wilson complained that Hayden's bill would not prohibit more stringent local ordinances on the same subject.