[size=4]Gun lobby scores victory in Assembly committee[/size=4]

By James P. Sweeney
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
April 23, 2002

SACRAMENTO – In a rare setback for the gun-control movement here, an Assembly committee on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have banned future sales of high-powered .50-caliber rifles.

Two liberal Democrats with records of support for gun laws broke ranks and voted with the only two Republicans on the Public Safety Committee to defeat the bill, 4-3.

The author, Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, was given a second chance at passage, but he will need a rule waiver to keep the bill, AB 2222, alive.

Puzzled supporters attributed the defeat to election-year politics, suggesting Gov. Gray Davis may have been at work behind the scenes. Aides to the governor said he had no position on the measure.

But committee chairman Carl Washington, a Paramount Democrat and one of the opposition votes, suggested otherwise.

"It was not going to be signed by the governor," Washington said. "The governor is not in favor of moving the bill forward."

[url]www.uniontrib.com/news/state/20020423-1724-n113079.html[/url]

Congrats for now.  You had better get them on order soon though.  They will not give up.

Good News

AFAIK, Gov Davis never said anything publicly about the ban, so I guess there must have been some backroom deals going on or the committee just doesn't want to admit they were swayed by the hundreds of letters and Faxes they received.

If Simon wins in November, hopefully the bill will be dead for at least 4 years, but I know Koretz and his ilk will never be satisfied until all firearms are banned in this state.

That's one for us, zero for the limousine liberals. It feels good to win one once in a while.