Do you think as Attorney General, Senator Chuck Poochigian would enforce California's gun laws?
By Griffin Dix, Ph.D.
On October 2nd LA Times columnist, George Skelton, quoted California Senator Chuck Poochigian asking, "You think one life has been saved?" by the gun legislation that California has passed in recent years. Skelton said he thought Poochigian wanted to talk about, "...innocent gun owners being harassed while gun-toting criminals go free - the usual gun lobby spiel."
I'm glad Poochigian asked that question and glad to give him an answer.
In the past seventeen years California has passed a series of sensible gun laws, starting with the nation's toughest assault weapons ban passed after the 1989 Stockton schoolyard shooting by an angry man with an AK-47 and a bunch of very large ammunition clips. The series of California gun laws do not harass gun owners but they do save lives.
In the past decade, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control data, between 1994 and 2003 California cut its per capita rate of gun homicide by 46 percent and its rate of gun suicide by 33 percent. These declines are much greater than the declines in the rest of the United States, and California's sensible gun laws are an important reason for this success.
Research by scholars at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and by other scholars shows that many of the laws California has passed and similar laws passed in other states caused gun homicides and suicides to decline. (See http://www.jhsph.edu/gunpolicy/)
Now, as Senator Poochigian runs for the California office that would be responsible for enforcing California's gun laws, the office of Attorney General, it's time to realize that he is not the right person to be put in charge of enforcing these laws that he scoffs at.
Poochigian has an A rating from the gun lobby and has taken thousands of dollars from the gun lobby organizations in campaign contributions. He has a record of voting against sensible gun laws. In 1997 he voted against a bill (AB 491) that would hold parents accountable if they store their gun in a way that a child gets it and causes harm. These child access prevention laws have been proven to cut teenage gun suicide. Despite Poochigian's vote with the gun lobby, the law passed and is helping save lives.
Also in 1997 Poochigian voted against a law (AB 1221) that would ban sales of handgun ammunition to minors (who are not allowed to own handguns). Fortunately the legislature passed the law and it was signed by Governor Pete Wilson.
Poochigian also did the gun lobby's bidding in voting against a law (SB 23) in 1999 designed to close a loophole in California's assault weapons ban. SB 23 criminalized the manufacture, import, sale of large-capacity magazines made for hosing down killing fields in war. Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed and the law was passed.
In 2004 Poochigian voted against a ban on .50-caliber sniper rifles. Fortunately the law passed and was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger. .50-caliber sniper rifles are military weapons made to penetrate armor plating. They are accurate at a distance of a mile or more and can bring down airplanes and helicopters. They have been used in crimes in the U.S. including wounding a police officer and trafficking these weapons of war to terrorist organizations in other countries.
The laws that Poochigian scoffs at are supported by California law enforcement officers. They have a tough enough job without being outgunned by weapons made for mass slaughter on battlefields and weapons made for long-range sniper fire.
If Poochigian were to become the California Attorney General would he aggressively enforce the laws that he scoffs at and voted against?
Is he the man to enforce the sensible California gun laws that have brought our state's rates of gun homicide and gun suicide down so much faster than in the rest of the nation?
Griffin Dix works full time against gun violence. In 1994 he lost his son in an accidental gun shooting. He is President of the California Chapters of the Million Mom March. He previously taught at the University of California.
