No Bite in Assault Gun Rule

It seems incomprehensible that eight years after the California Legislature banned the sale and possession of assault weapons, it’s still possible to establish legal ownership of one of these fearsome guns by filling out a simple form for the state Department of Justice.

“It’s a mess,” declared a lawyer for Handgun Control Inc., which is challenging the attorney general’s interpretation and administration of the law. A mess indeed.

The Legislature knew it would be folly to try to confiscate existing weapons back in 1989, so the authors of the ban sought to limit the number of assault weapons to those privately owned at that time. A deadline of March 31, 1992, was set for the owners to register those firearms and thus establish their legality in the future. The department even spent $300,000 on a public service announcement by Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren warning gun owners that if they failed to register the guns by then they faced a heavy fine or jail time.

But Justice Department attorneys later argued that the deadline was not hard and fast--a position heatedly disputed by the authors of the legislation. Registration continued without the imposition of any punishment and despite the fact that owners did not even have to provide proof that they possessed the weapons before the law was passed. As of this past September, the Justice Department had registered 62,000 assault weapons, more than 16,000 of them after the 1992 deadline.

Lungren argued that it was better to have the guns registered than not. That is fine in theory, but five years after the deadline? Without assessing the late registrants any sort of penalty? And without knowing for certain whether the firearms really were legally owned in 1989 or bought last week at some gun sale in Nevada or Arizona?

Now, Handgun Control has gone into Superior Court in San Francisco to seek a writ compelling Lungren to enforce the law as the Legislature intended. The facts seem to be clear in this case. Such a writ is in order. Even better, Lungren can stop this after-the-fact assault weapon registration today.