Gun Lobby

SACRAMENTO - "Living in parallel universes," is how Senate leader Darrell Steinberg describes it. Gun control and gun rights advocates "talking past each other. " Emanating from different cultures, incapable of agreeing on how to make us all safer from firearms. Their opposite views were in full voice last week in the Legislature during a marathon 10-hour committee hearing - longest anyone could remember - on gun bills. Unlike in Washington, where gun control forces couldn't muster enough strength in the U.S. Senate to pass legislation expanding background checks, a state Senate committee in Sacramento approved eight bills to strengthen California's already stringent firearms regulations.

SACRAMENTO - "Living in parallel universes," is how Senate leader Darrell Steinberg describes it. Gun control and gun rights advocates "talking past each other. " Emanating from different cultures, incapable of agreeing on how to make us all safer from firearms. Their opposite views were in full voice last week in the Legislature during a marathon 10-hour committee hearing - longest anyone could remember - on gun bills. Unlike in Washington, where gun control forces couldn't muster enough strength in the U.S. Senate to pass legislation expanding background checks, a state Senate committee in Sacramento approved eight bills to strengthen California's already stringent firearms regulations.

Seeking to counter the influence of the pro-gun lobby, former U.S.  Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, are launching a campaign to change the nation's gun policies. The initiative, called Americans for Responsible Solutions, was announced Tuesday on the two-year anniversary of the Tucson mass shooting that killed six people and severely wounded Giffords.  “Forget the boogeyman of big, bad government coming to dispossess you of your firearms.

As the Senate prepares to vote Thursday on what appears to be a very modest proposal to increase background checks of gun purchasers at gun shows and on the Internet - leaving a great big loophole for families and friends, or should I say “friends,” -   I felt compelled to check the gun lobby's temperature. It's running a little high. “Expanding background checks at gun shows will not prevent the next shooting, will not solve violent crime and will not keep our kids safe in schools,” was the NRA's response to the compromise legislation.

One week after 20-year-old Adam Lanza used guns to kill 20 first-graders and seven adults before shooting himself, two physicians published a Viewpoint article in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. asking what the medical and public health community can do to prevent massacres like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., from being repeated. “What actions can the nation take to prevent more such acts from happening, or at least limit their severity?” they wrote.

Re George Skelton's column, "Gun Lobby's Words Backfire on Itself," Feb. 23: Let me get this straight. If a woman wears provocative clothing and gets raped, she's a victim. If gun owners have their valuable personal property stolen from them, they are the problem. This is classic blame the victim. Skelton's logic would have us believe that grand theft auto could be eliminated if only none of us owned cars. True enough, I guess, but isn't that a bit punitive on law-abiding auto owners?

I choked up repeatedly while watching and reading the stories about the slaughter of the innocents in Newtown, Conn., and, throughout the mournful weekend, I pondered the question raised by everyone from stricken parents to mayors and senators on the news talk shows: What will be done to prevent similar sick-minded gun rampages in the future? My early conclusion: Nothing. Narrow political interests and the perplexing nature of the crime make inaction nearly certain. This has proved true after the 15 other multiple-shooting rampages of 2012, and it has been the case with all the other terrible incidents in past years.

SACRAMENTO - Enforce the laws already on the books. Take away the criminals' weapons, not the law-abiding citizens'. Sound familiar? It's the mantra of the gun lobby. That is, until the government actually attempts to do it. Then the lobby changes its lyrics. It seemed surreal listening to lobbyists for gun rights groups Monday, as if the ears were playing tricks. They testified at a state Senate Budget Committee hearing in opposition to legislation that would spend $24 million in surplus money to confiscate guns possessed by people who legally aren't supposed to have them.

The firefight between opposing gun camps all last week in the Assembly was a reminder of what this issue is about: It's about human drama and tragedy. It's about both sides' obsessions and fears. And it's about political peril. In this battle, it also was about a saturation-fire strategy by gun-control advocates that overwhelmed the pro-gun lobby.

Your editorial ("Roberti Recall: Taking Aim at Courage," Feb. 9), regarding the recall of state Sen. David Roberti (D-Van Nuys), is on the mark. Roberti was my Senate partner in the successful passage of the Roberti-Roos bill to stop the sale, manufacture and transport of military assault weapons; I know firsthand how malevolent the gun extremists can be. Now, we publicly see why gun reforms are so difficult to enact. The recall of Roberti is testament to the gun lobby's zeal in attempting to discredit and remove from the political scene voices of courage and reason.

SACRAMENTO - Enforce the laws already on the books. Take away the criminals' weapons, not the law-abiding citizens'. Sound familiar? It's the mantra of the gun lobby. That is, until the government actually attempts to do it. Then the lobby changes its lyrics. It seemed surreal listening to lobbyists for gun rights groups Monday, as if the ears were playing tricks. They testified at a state Senate Budget Committee hearing in opposition to legislation that would spend $24 million in surplus money to confiscate guns possessed by people who legally aren't supposed to have them.

The brother of a taxi driver killed in a crash on the Las Vegas Strip last month said he wants the suspect in the case punished - and stiffer gun control to keep weapons out of the hands of people with criminal pasts. Michael Boldon, 62, died Feb. 21 after suspect Ammar Harris, a self-described pimp, allegedly shot and killed Oakland rapper Kenneth Cherry Jr. after an altercation at the Aria Casino. Cherry's Maserati crashed into a taxicab, which exploded in flames, killing Boldon and a passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, according to prosecutors.

Seeking to counter the influence of the pro-gun lobby, former U.S.  Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, are launching a campaign to change the nation's gun policies. The initiative, called Americans for Responsible Solutions, was announced Tuesday on the two-year anniversary of the Tucson mass shooting that killed six people and severely wounded Giffords.  “Forget the boogeyman of big, bad government coming to dispossess you of your firearms.

SACRAMENTO - George Deukmejian was not a flashy governor. Wasn't a spellbinder. But he was a bold leader on a perilous front: gun control. In a state that prizes entertainers and celebrities, Deukmejian twice got elected governor anyway. He was the quiet-spoken, strong-willed type. "Iron Duke," they called him. Gary Cooper would have been perfect for the part. Think "High Noon. " We're coming up on the 24th anniversary of Iron Duke's outdrawing the gun lobby to enact the nation's first assault weapons ban - an action hardly anyone could have predicted, given his political past.

Three days before the massacre of 20 young schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., a federal appeals court struck down Illinois' ban on carrying a weapon in public. The ruling complicated the task of legislating protections against gun violence, but it was less of a victory for the gun lobby than it initially appeared. Alone among the states, Illinois imposes a broad ban on the carrying of "ready to use" guns outside the home. (There are exceptions for police, hunters and target shooters.)

For physicians and public health researchers, guns are not unlike cars, swimming pools, bicycles, alcohol and prescription drugs: They are a common cause of injury to their patients and to the population at large; but with knowledge, physicians and public health experts believe, that injury can be limited or mitigated. It's a perspective that the firearms industry and advocates of gun ownership roundly reject. And, as detailed in three leading medical journals, the gun lobby has been remarkably effective in their efforts to snuff out the notion that when it comes to guns, knowledge can reduce harm.

Eons ago, when my brother and I were teens hunting in the mountains behind Ojai, we'd marvel at the giant birds soaring far overhead. They were California condors. Or maybe they were turkey vultures. We really didn't know. But we'd always say they were condors because that made us feel good, like it was a special event. This was prime condor country, after all, in the Los Padres National Forest.

WASHINGTON - In the week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as President Obama and Democratic lawmakers issued urgent calls for new restrictions on guns, America's largest and most powerful gun lobby lay low. But its silence did not mean the National Rifle Assn. had grown conciliatory. When NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre finally weighed in Friday, he delivered a lashing speech that attacked gun-free school zones, the media and violent movies and video games as he pledged his group would train a vast force of armed volunteers to protect the nation's schools.

One week after 20-year-old Adam Lanza used guns to kill 20 first-graders and seven adults before shooting himself, two physicians published a Viewpoint article in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. asking what the medical and public health community can do to prevent massacres like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., from being repeated. “What actions can the nation take to prevent more such acts from happening, or at least limit their severity?” they wrote.