Supes approve scaled-back gun laws

By Emmett Berg and Julia Cheever

July 25, 2007

The Board of Supervisors passed an array of gun laws yesterday that followed a judge's decision last year to invalidate a voter-approved measure banning possession of handguns in the city except by law enforcement and other authorized officers.

In June 2006 a San Francisco Superior Court judge struck down Proposition H, approved by a 58-to-42-percent majority of voters in 2005.

Judge James Warren said the measure conflicted with state laws regulating handguns. Warren wrote in a 30-page ruling that the Legislature has passed a "myriad of laws" on handgun possession and use, thus pre-empting local laws.

He wrote, "These laws support the argument that California has an overarching concern in controlling gun use by defining the circumstances under which firearms can be possessed uniformly across the state, without having this statewide scheme contradicted or subverted by local policy."

Warren issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by the National Rifle Association, four other groups and seven individuals.

The laws passed unanimously were more limited in scope. One bans possession or sale of firearms or ammunition on county property. That puts San Francisco on par with Los Angeles County, which has spent years litigating challenges to its own law prohibiting gun shows at the county-owned Fairplex facility.

Another measure passed requires handguns owned by residents to be stored in a locked container or with a trigger lock. A current state law mandates those requirements for the transport of a handgun.

A third law passed requires gun dealers to conduct inventory counts every six months.

There is only one gun shop in the entire city.

Copyright © 2007 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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