In Vetoing Gun-control Bill SB 755, Brown Misses the Mark

California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill last week that would have added repeated alcohol and drug offenses as reasons for denying gun ownership. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press / May 29, 2013)

Los Angeles Times

One thing I don't get: If people kill people — guns don't — why is it OK for a perpetually drunken person to own a gun? Gov. Jerry Brown thinks it is.

A drunk with a gun is double-barreled trouble.

Studies show that a gun owner with one misdemeanor conviction — such as a DUI — is five times more likely to commit a violent crime with a firearm than a gunner with no prior arrest record, according to Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

But Brown vetoed a bill last week that would have added repeated alcohol and drug offenses as reasons for denying gun ownership. Two DUIs or other misdemeanor substance abuse convictions within three years and you couldn't possess a firearm for 10 years.

Not even the gun lobby aggressively opposed that legislation, SB 755 by Sen. Lois Wolk (D-Davis).

Brown, in his veto message, said: "I am not persuaded that it is necessary to prohibit gun ownership on the basis of crimes that are non-felonies, non-violent and do not involve misuse of a firearm."

I asked the governor's office for some elaboration. The response: "The message speaks for itself."

So the message is that the governor doesn't see why a convicted drunk or druggie shouldn't be armed.

"I was just stunned," Wintemute says. "He was just wrong on the facts. There is persuasive evidence out there. There are dozens of studies associating acute alcohol intoxication and a history of DUIs with the risk of committing future gun violence. That's established beyond doubt."

Wintemute, an emergency room physician who has been researching firearms violence for three decades, adds, "Of all the gun bills proposed this year, SB 755 might have been the one to have the largest effect on crime rates. We missed a chance to do some good here."

Governor Brown Vetoed the Rifle Ban but Signed 11 Other Gun Laws

San Jose News

Some of the other bills Brown signed will require long-gun buyers to earn safety certificates like those already required of handgun buyers; ban conversion kits that allow people to turn regular magazines into high-capacity magazines; and extend from six months to five years the prohibition from owning firearms for those who have described a credible violent threat to a psychotherapist.

Gun rights activists are grateful that Brown vetoed Steinberg's SB374, but the governor still "signed the most sweeping set of gun control bills in the nation into law today," Kerns said Friday. "There will be a political price to pay for this."

She said her group will examine Friday's signings, pore over roll calls of lawmakers who voted for them "and determine if there are grounds for legislative recalls," especially "any legislators who voted wildly out of step with their districts. ... We may even go out and talk to some of their constituents, hold a town hall or three."

Still, Brown ultimately rejected seven of 11 bills that the National Rifle Association had urged him to veto.

Easily the most controversial gun bill signed by Brown was AB711 by Assemblyman Anthony Rendon, D-South Gate, to ban use of lead ammunition in hunting by mid-2019.

He issued a signing message that said lead endangers wildlife, but noted that the new law lets the state Fish and Wildlife Department suspend the ban if the federal government prohibits nonlead ammunition because it's considered armor-piercing.

"It is time to begin this transition and provide hunters with ammunition that will allow them to continue the conservation heritage of California," Brown wrote.