Posted September 14, 1999

The centerpiece of this summer's frenzy of gun control legislation was Senator Don Perata's (D-Oakland) "assault weapons" ban. California voters seem to have bought the idea that the ban will keep violent gangbangers and racist mass-murderers from killing more innocents. Who would have thought that Senator Perata's bill would create a whole new category of criminals: junior Olympic-class shooters?

R.J. Santibanez and his team of teen marksmen are getting a crash course in the weird politics of gun control. The San Diego college professor coaches an elite group of junior Olympic hopefuls in the ancient skill of accurate shooting. But the new law bans the delicate, expensive small-caliber pistols they must use to compete in their sport.

The pistols used by Santibanez's stars are designed to meet the requirements for Olympic competition. Finely machined for sight radius, weight, and trigger pull, these guns have a price tag to match — about $1,400 for starters.

These are assuredly not the weapons of choice for criminals. The most fanatic gun-controller would have trouble labeling them assault weapons. Gun-unfriendly lawmakers had no such trouble, however. As Santibanez put it, "They have killed all the Olympic dreams of junior shooters in California."

So what turns these Olympic target pistols into death machines? According to the Perata law, it is "the capacity to accept a detachable magazine [a clip for holding bullets] at some location outside of the pistol grip." This design feature is one of the essential elements of the "ugly gun," or assault weapon. It adds no power to the gun and doesn't change the way it shoots. But a forward-mounted magazine gives some guns an appearance frightening to those not familiar with firearms. And fear is exploited by unprincipled politicians.

The legislature has failed again in its decade-long effort to define a class of bad guns. The media-manufactured term "assault weapon" is a powerful tool for stoking voters' fears. Crusading anti-gun politicians love to wave these ugly black, military-looking guns in front of news cameras, like a shaman waving an evil talisman. Some anti-gun activists have deliberately misrepresented assault weapons as machine guns, which have been all but outlawed for 65 years.

But the phrase has no real-world meaning, and guns have no mystical evil quality except to the uneducated. The Olympic pistol, the "assault weapon," and the police sidearm are all simply a metal tube that fires one bullet each time the trigger is pulled. That's why any efforts to define an assault weapon are doomed to failure. Although the cosmetic details may vary, these guns are all essentially the same.

Of course, the person who pulls the trigger is a different story. He can be an Olympic-class marksman or a deranged, racist murderer. Starting now, California law no longer distinguishes between the two.

The San Diego teens are not the only victims of our civic weakness. Thousands of Californians will be turned into brand-new criminals by the assault-weapon ban unless they register their newly demonized possessions with the Department of Justice. Some might view this as a reasonable requirement. But the owners of these guns may be forgiven for feeling stigmatized unfairly because of their harmless hobby. In any case, California voters might wonder what they have accomplished by putting these good people at risk of criminal punishment.

America seems to be lurching toward an increasingly legalistic society in which rigid laws replace common sense. Zero tolerance of weapons at school results in kids being expelled for bringing a pocket knife to class. Never mind that when most schoolboys carried this handy tool in their pockets we didn't see an epidemic of school stabbings. Never mind that innocent children targeted by such ridiculous policies have a permanent stain on their reputations.

Zero-tolerance policies and assault weapon bans germinate from a common soil — moral lassitude. We are becoming too lazy or too afraid to stand up for right and to condemn wrongdoing. It's so much easier to blame some object instead of holding people responsible for criminal conduct. We just pass another law and congratulate ourselves for solving the problem, even though we know better.

Under the new law, Coach Santibanez and his youthful team face a harsh reality. If he continues after December 31 to supervise target match training for his young students, he will be guilty of lending assault weapons to minors. The president and match director of the Black Mountain Shooting Club, proud father and trainer of world-class athletes, will become a felon. California will not be a better place to live because of it.